


What a day

by Name1



Series: Moving Forward [12]
Category: The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Bean with a lowercase b, F/M, Family Feels, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Romance, idiots to lovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-04
Updated: 2020-06-04
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:48:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 26,437
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24543349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Name1/pseuds/Name1
Summary: He shouldn't have gone along with this. He knew this had been a mistake, but it was so clear now as he sat on the floor not even knowing if she was still alive.  Bean must have sensed his stress because he woke up to look at him and his ears were dreadfully low. "It's okay kid, don't worry about me." He wanted to tell him not to worry about Cara either but how could he possibly ask him to do something he was incapable of himself. They needed to start preparing to leave the ship again--he'd spent too much time allowing his anxiety to come to the surface already. Between his worry and his vision from the kid, his brain felt fuzzy. He needed to focus.'What would Cara say if she was here?' he thought to himself.“Don’t be an idiot Din. Focus on the job at hand. Fulfill the mission then you can daydream about me as much as you want.”He hated it when she was right....
Relationships: Baby Yoda (The Mandalorian TV) & Cara Dune & The Mandalorian (The Mandalorian TV), Cara Dune & The Mandalorian (The Mandalorian TV), Cara Dune/The Mandalorian (The Mandalorian TV)
Series: Moving Forward [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1648918
Comments: 53
Kudos: 71





	1. The meeting

**Author's Note:**

> Ok. Here it is. This is the end.  
> I was in such a rush to get this out so I apologize for the typos I'm still catching at every pass.
> 
> I'll catch more in the next 24 hours :) thanks for your patience

Din waits until everyone has walked back inside and he is alone on the steps to realize what had just happened. He had lied through his teeth to give her a few more moments of safety until they could follow their procedures and move her into general holding. He knows he only has one hour until he needs to be on the steps of the Justice Hall again, this time with the kid in tow, so he turns his back to the building that now holds Cara and puts one foot in front of the other to get back to the Crest. Cara would want him to focus on the job at hand and not worry about her, but that’s all but impossible. The walk back to the Crest seems unnaturally long though it only takes a few minutes to reach the familiar ship again.

The walk is lonely. He misses her already. She would laugh if she knew how needy he sounded already. It almost makes him smile thinking about how she would tease him.

He looks down at his feet as he walks and sees her footprints aren’t beside his. There was no laughter or serious talk filling the air. No teasing. Nothing but one foot in front of the other. It was like before….

……before Cara and before the kid.

_Before, when he was alone._

He remembers back when his life was one job bleeding into the next one and a Beskar payout was the only reward for the injuries he sustained and tended to on his own...

He had lived for his Clan, wanting nothing for himself and it had been easy-- easy because he never knew any different. He didn’t know what it was like to have a person to share this life with and now that he did…… the thought of two days without her was agony. He'd never been a religious man, but he prayed to anyone who was listening, _'please don't let them hurt her'_.

He gets back to the ship and is relieved that it looks as secure and intact as they left it. The kid looks at the ramp after he comes in as if he’s waiting for a second set of boots to walk in behind him. Din punches in the sequence to close the ramp and the kid freaks out and starts chirping until it hisses shut.

“I know, kid,” he says solemnly, “but we won’t see her for a few days.” Bean doesn’t seem to like this answer because he chirps at Din a pitiful noise that’s just a soft ‘a’ sound over and over. He can’t tell what hurts more; if he’s trying to say ‘Cara', or 'mama', or some other equally distressed sound.

The ship is quiet.

Empty.

He had almost an hour to kill with the kid before they had to be back in the city, but he can’t go relax in their bunk where her smell would surround him. He can’t go to the cockpit either, where he remembers her presence in the co-pilot’s chair when they first traveled together and then in his lap more recently. He could almost hear her voice and her laugh as they joked they would break the chair when she climbed atop him. He can’t go in the main hold where her things are strung about carelessly like she could walk in at any moment and as much as he needed to bathe to get the smell of the planet off him, he couldn’t go in their shower. He couldn’t even wash his face, or he would wash off the taste of her kiss or the warmth of her palm on his cheek.

He pulls an old mat out of storage and lays in on the floor near the storage area and grabs a spare blanket they had never used for anything except packing material. It smells like mothballs but he’s glad it’s a smell he doesn’t associate with her at all. He’s about to go looking for the kid when he comes waddling over with one of Cara’s boots-- her right one, as always.

Despite his feelings he has to put the kid first. ‘ _Hold it together_ ,’ he tells himself, when the little guy looks up to him in concern. He’s not sure what he’s holding inside--rage or sorrow—but he vows to hold it in until the kid drifts off. He picks him up and Bean settles down instantly. “You want to sit with me for a while, huh kiddo?” Bean must have been on edge the whole time he was alone in the ship, ready at the drop of a hat to defend himself if the door was breached. Now that Din had returned, Bean let his weariness catch up with him and he slumped in the safety of his dad’s arms.

He wonders what the kid’s memory is like. Does he even remember far enough back to remember the days when it was just them, before Cara came into the picture? Before he gets more comfortable, Din asks him, “you want to sleep in the bunk or with me down here?” Bean clutches his hands and the cloth of his flightsuit between the armor plates in response. “Okay, down here it is.”

‘ _The kid doesn’t deserve this_ ,’ he thinks. He’s been through enough; he shouldn’t have to feel worry or stress or fear for the rest of his natural life. It was Din’s responsibility to comfort him and convince him everything would return to normal, no matter how he truly felt under the surface--he couldn’t let his anxiety seep through for the kid to feel. “It’s going to be okay, you’ll see,” he says, as confidently as he can as he wraps his hands comfortingly around Bean’s little body. “I’ll get her out of there somehow.”

He projected every bit of confidence he had just to see the kid smile up at him but the voice in his head wouldn’t be silenced. _What if he got captured or worse during the rescue attempt? Who would care for Bean then? Who return to the ship for him; feed him, play with him, or protect him? He’d send a message to the armorer before he attempted a rescue plan._

_The more he thinks about it he’ll send her a message now. If he doesn’t send a second one belaying the first, she would know something had gone wrong at this meeting with this Jedi and she would come to retrieve the kid._

The worst part was this horrible day wasn't even over yet. They still had a meeting with the Jedi in less than an hour--assuming he even showed. This could all be one big trick--maybe he had handed Cara over for nothing. She might be in prison thinking her sacrifice was worth it for Din’s meeting with this Jedi and she wouldn't know it had all been for naught.

He might have only bought her a few minutes with his distracting outburst but even a few minutes was better than nothing. They would discover his lie in only a few minutes but maybe she could use those few minutes to chat with the guards or ingratiate herself in some way to someone who would take pity on her. Din thinks back to how livid she had been at his impromptu lie and he almost smiles when he remembers the righteous outrage on her beautiful face. When she had lunged at him, the guards had barely been able to hold her back. That was his Cara; strong, fearless, and headstrong...

“What are we going to do kid, huh? What should I do?” ‘He must be losing his mind,’ he thinks. He was asking for tactical advice from his green alien son who couldn't even speak. As much as he could assure Bean everything would be fine, he found he needed some reassurance as well.

“ _You_ think everything’s going to be okay, don’t you?” He couldn't believe he was looking for comfort and reassurance from a baby--it was supposed to be the other way around. Just his little hands holding onto Din’s larger ones was a comfort he desperately needed. The kid only looked concerned at Din’s projected nervousness but other than that Bean seemed unusually calm. He surprisingly didn’t look worried at all about Cara…… 

Bean let go of Din’s hands and climbed up his chest where he reaches out to touch his helmet. It took him a second of confusion to understand what his boy wanted. “You want me to take it off?” He never bothered turning up the lights in the storage area and so he lifts it off and places it beside his legs. Din closes his eyes at the familiar touch of Beans warm hand as he touches his face----

The kid’s hand grows hot against his cheek and he opens his eyes----

He's in the woods--but it's a clearing he’s standing in. He looks up to see the swirling colors in the sky and he can hear the sound of rushing water from the waterfall in the distance.

In front of him there’s a modest wooden house made with hand-sawn planks. There were 5 uneven steps of questionable structural integrity leading up to the porch where the front door was purposefully ajar. _There was no need for security here_. _He knew this place….._

He looked down when two children ran into his legs almost knocking him off balance. The larger of the two wrapped her arms around his waist and the smaller on barely reached above his knees. _He knew them too._ He was glad to see them again. He ran his hands through their hair as they clung to him. The little boy looked up at him and the face was so familiar it made din’s chest ache. “She was chasing me again,” the little boy cried, as he clung to his legs.

“I was not.” The taller and visibly older girl had dark curls messy around her face but her perfect pouty face was all Cara.

“Don’t chase your brother,” he heard himself say. “You know it riles him up.” _He’s told her this a hundred times….._

“But he was chasing me too,” she argued, in perfect child logic.

Before he can answer, he hears Cara’s laugh from the front porch. _He’d recognize it anywhere, among a thousand voices._

“Now THAT I believe. Go play you two," she said, with more patience than he had ever heard her project before. They go to run off, but before they round the house Cara calls out to them again.

“And apologize to your father for almost running him over.”

They ran back over and threw their arms around him again and smiled as they followed her orders. _Smart kids._

“Sorry Papa.”

“Sorry daddy.”

He missed their warmth and their grabby little hands immediately when they let go of his legs to play around the side of the house.

Only once they disappeared from view did he turn his head toward Cara. She looked a little older but somehow even more beautiful for it.

She is sitting on the wrap-around porch, her back leaning against the front wall of the house and she looks so relaxed he finds himself relaxing as well just looking at her. _He knows this place but he doesn’t…..It’s so fuzzy._

He’s just so glad to see her. He doesn’t care how crazy all this seems as long as she’s here. Somehow, he knows Bean is here too even though he hasn’t seen him yet.

She’s holding something against her chest; some bundle of cloth or something, he thinks. He moves closer to her and sees her shirt is bunched up oddly on one side. Upon closer inspection, he leans over her and he sees Cara's hand stroking through the softest dark fuzz he’s ever laid eyes on and it all makes sense. She’s nursing a baby. He moves to sit beside her to get a better view and is rewarded with the sweetest thing he’s ever laid eyes on. He knows nothing of babies, but this one can’t me more than a few days new into the world. He knows it’s a girl but he doesn’t know how. _He just remembers….._

_He knows this place. He knows these children. He knows all of it. The last thing he remembers was sitting on the Crest with the kid, but here he was. He's known this place forever….._

He focuses his thoughts back to the perfect little creature in his wife’s arms. Her perfect little mouth is splayed alike a little fish over Cara’s breast where the shirt is pulled back to let her nurse. Her little eyes are closed and he would believe she was asleep if not for the little motions of her cheeks as she suckles and the movement behind her ear as she swallows with a tiny ‘ck’ sound, over and over.

"She’s perfect" he finds himself saying. It's all he can feel as the image works its way through his chest; warm and real. He should probably say something more profound but laying his eyes on this perfect little being, he can’t form fords. He couldn’t possibly say anything else but, ‘she’s perfect’. He reaches out to touch her but doesn’t want to disturb her mealtime so he withdraws his hand at the last second.

“They’re all perfect, when they aren’t driving us crazy” his wife says, with a chuckle, “but yeah, she’s been the easiest and definitely the hungriest.” He can already see the little whisps around her tiny ears that will curl as they grow out. He can’t fight it anymore--he as to touch her. He runs his finger along a perfect soft round cheek and tiny dark eyes flutter open before taking him in and closing again. She must feel safe and comfortable and utterly secure to be so agreeable with him interrupting her meal.

“You should be resting,” he says, as he tears his eyes away from the perfect little face and turns to the equally perfect face of his wife. As beautiful as she looks, she looks exhausted. She’s holding a newborn and she’s still pale from the massive undertaking she undertook only days ago.

“I’d get up, but it took forever to get this one down,” she says, as she gestures to her other side. “He never wants to take a nap in the afternoon.” There was another achingly perfect child laying on the porch. He couldn’t be more than two. Short dark hair covered his forehead, and he was lying on a blanket to Cara’s side drooling as he sleeps the peaceful innocent sleep only a child can. He wants to reach out and touch this one too, but it would disturb Cara and the tiny bundle in her arms. The combination of her stiff back and Din’s fascination with the baby prompts her to shift her in her arms before making to hand her over. She hands over the little girl who had fallen asleep into Din’s waiting arms, only then pulling down her shirt down and stretching her back.

He must be staring because she laughs at him in the middle of her stretch that made her back arch enticingly. “Like you’ve never seen them before,” she chuckles, as she catches him staring at her chest, “though I must admit they’re quite a bit larger than normal.”

“Just admiring the view,” he says. He couldn’t believe it. This was his. This was _theirs_. How was this possible? He might have also appreciated the view of her softer body as well but that was irrespective to the view he had in his arms right now.

“In your own words,” she says with a grin, “t _he view_ is what led to all these little monsters.” Her voice is so full of affection as she watches the two eldest running and screeching in delight, soaked head to toe. They must have gotten into the stream again.

The oldest girl runs up to them and deposits a small frog in his lap before running away again in search of more. He watches the messy dark curls at the back of her head as she bounds off and sees the perfect combination of himself and Cara in her.

“You’re amazing,” he says to Cara, breathlessly. “You created this--all of this.” He looks around and takes it all in; barely able to believe this is theirs--the house in the forest, this family, all of it.

“You had an active role as well,” she said, as she leans against him, “though if you want to give me all the credit, go ahead.”

He looked down at his lap to determine if he should get up so she can rest without her arms full and he sees Bean looking up at him, quite pleased with himself and the six humans of varying sizes around him. _How long has he been sitting content in his lap? The frog must have been for him._ Cara reaches out a hand to stroke down his fuzzy ears and he relishes in her attention like he always has. This action is so commonplace that it reassures him and lends another layer of realism to this dreamscape.

The little one in his arms kicks and stretches her arms so her hands rest above her head, partly obscuring her prefect little face and Din instinctively shifts her weight to better balance her. He’s done this hundreds of times…..he can feel the muscle memory, but he knows he’s never held a human baby before. Bean doesn’t count as an infant, despite his same general size. How does he know these children as if he’s been here their whole lives? He can almost remember watching them grow up, but the memory is fuzzy. The more he tries to focus on the details of this life the more they dance away from the edge of his vision. ‘Is this a dream?’ he thinks. He last remembers holding Bean in his lap on the Crest as he reached up to touch his face. Was this the _kid’s_ dream?

“How did we get here?” he finds himself asking Cara, as her eyes flutter closed at finally having her arms free to relax. The light coming through the tall trees cast shadows over her face but he could still see how pale she was. The baby in his arms had taken a toll on her and she needed to rest.

“I kicked your ass and you bought me soup? Don’t tell me you forgot.” Some things never change. He can see her grin perfectly without even seeing her face.

He smiles. “No, I mean how did you get free. You were prisoner of the New Republic. How did I get you out?” He knows this must be a dream, but he hopes it’s not. Maybe all this really happened, and this is their life now. The little warm weight in his arms settles down for a nap; milk-dunk and content in the arms holding her.

“You don’t remember?” she questions him, her eyes still closed in peace at letting her arms relax for the first time in hours. “You didn’t have to break me out at all….. It was only hours later when you and Le----”

He never heard the rest as the fuzzy kid in his lap raised his hand, touched Din’s face again, and they were back on the crest on the spare mat covered in a packing blanket.

The tiny weight in his arms was gone. He couldn’t hear the shrieks of laughter of the children chasing each other in the yard. He couldn’t feel the sun or smell the wood of the house. Cara was gone…..

“What was _that_?” he asks, as he looks down at the little fuzzy green kid in amazement. “Was that _you_?” Bean looked so pleased with himself. Din can’t believe the kid could have done whatever _that_ just was, but his power is something they haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of yet. He rubs his ears. “You showing me what you think I want to see, huh kiddo?”

He has another thought at how at peace the kid seems where he should probably be more stressed at Cara’s absence. He looks so comfortable, as if he himself just saw an image that he knew with certainty would come to pass. Bean has seemed distressed at Din’s worry and concern, but he doesn’t seem upset at Cara’s absence much at all. Maybe he knows something Din doesn’t....

A chill runs down Din’s spine as he wonders how powerful the kid’s powers really are. He almost doesn’t want to voice his thought aloud, in case he jinxes it and it never comes to pass. “Is it what you think I want to see or are you saying that’s the future?” he asks. The kid doesn’t have any answers, but Din waits for a response anyway until he remembers reality and the laws of physics and forces himself to accept that it was just a nice dream. “It’s a nice fantasy kid, but no one can see the future, even you.” The kid looks unimpressed with Din’s assessment of his abilities but curls up to go to sleep with him anyway.

He held Bean as he drifted off in his arms, likely from exerting his power in such a focused way.

Din was torn….

He didn’t want his boy to push himself and he knew this ‘ _force_ ’ exhausted him, but he wanted to be back in that clearing. Cara never even got to answer his question.

He wanted it all back. _'Could Bean recreate it_?' he wondered. He wanted the tiny warm weight in his arms back, delicate and real. He wanted to be able to listen closely to the snores of the toddler as he slept in the sun; his face protected by the shade of the trees surrounding the house. He wanted the children to run into him again as they played, totally unaware of any danger outside the borders of their homestead. They had never even heard the word ‘Empire’ or ‘Republic’ and he wanted to keep them protected so they never did. He wanted to sit with an older Cara and Bean on the porch of the house they built and listen to her complain about the uneven steps, as if that’s the worst disaster they could ever come across. He wanted all of it.

The kid might have projected some sort of dream, but that was the problem--Din didn’t want it to be a dream. He just couldn’t fathom how could they ever get to _that_ from the absolute shit they found themselves in at the moment? Din is tired but he has to stay awake so they can leave the ship in a few minutes. He can't let himself picture Cara now-- all alone in a room not knowing what could await her at any moment. Despite her arguing, he knew she was afraid, but she was more afraid for Din and Bean when they were out of her sight. She always worried about herself last, and as endearing as it was, it frustrated him to no end that she put her own safety above his own.

He shouldn't have gone along with this. He knew this had been a mistake, but it was so clear now as he sat on the floor not even knowing if she was still alive. Bean must have sensed his stress because he woke up to look at him and his ears were dreadfully low. "It's okay kid, don't worry about me." He wanted to tell him not to worry about Cara either but how could he possibly ask him to do something he was incapable of himself. They needed to start preparing to leave the ship again--he'd spent too much time allowing his anxiety to come to the surface already. Between his worry and his vision from the kid, his brain felt fuzzy. He needed to focus. 

What would Cara say if she was here?

_“Don’t be an idiot Din. Focus on the job at hand. Fulfill the mission then you can daydream about me as much as you want.”_

He hated it when she was right....

………………………………………

There were a handful of guards (two in the back and four next to her) that accompanied her down the labyrinth of hallways toward their final destination. Cara knew the instant the shared hallway changed from the Justice Hall to the medical wing from the sterile smell of disinfectant. It made her stomach churn.

She was still in binders and two guards had their weapons trained on her back as they walked at her pace but they weren’t pushing her along or prodding her to walk faster, thanks to her asshole husband and his big lying mouth. The four guards who were walking alongside her kept casting glances at her instead of walking where they were going. One of them almost walked into an open door because he was paying more attention to Cara than his surroundings.

“Eyes forward soldier,’ she said good-naturedly as he stumbled and tried to play it off. When they weren’t glancing at her they were glancing at each other they and giving each other these intense looks. Once or twice, one of them went to open their mouth to say something, only to think better of it and close their mouth once more. They make it to the end of a long corridor that’s mostly empty and Cara’s had enough.

"Okay seriously, do I have something on my face or what?" she asks with more attitude than was probably necessary, but she had grown tired of the stares and meaningful looks.

The guards up front look between themselves before one of the chooses to speak for the group. "Have you actually heard the crimes against you?" the oldest of the male guards finally asks.

"Noo....... why?" Cara answers, in an answer that trails off as this is clearly a leading question and she hates being led into a trap—even a verbal one.

"Would you like to?" the guard in the back asks her. "It only seems right so you know what you’re defending yourself against."

"Sure, why not?"

‘ _It’s probably all true though,_ ’ she thinks. It's weird though--they want her to have a shot at defending herself. It seemed like a generous gesture, but she thinks it must be a trick.

It turns out not to be a trick, as the group actually stopped while the guard in the back put his weapon away and pulled out a datapad to read the list of grievances against her. They weren’t only crimes per say besides desertion, but more a list of her missions, and it seems they were organized in order of severity of the fallout. He got to the end of the list and Cara just nodded in acceptance of her history. It felt strangely removed to be hearing about her life from someone else.

They’re all standing around awkwardly. ' _Shouldn’t they be leading her somewhere?_ ,' Cara thought to herself. They're still standing around just waiting and the silence is getting awkward.

"I can tell you’re about to burst," she says, to the group at large. "If you got something to say, just say it." They must be afraid of her or think she’s a terrible person, but the look on their faces suggested they were impressed and not horrified as they read off her history.

This has got to be good. "Come on, let’s hear it," she encourages them.

Finally, someone spoke first, and the dam broke of all the questions they had for her. They were practically speaking on top of each other in a jumble of questions and statements.

"--battle of Naalol, was that you?"

"Did you really drop over fifty missio--"

"You survived being on the ground in Cawa City? How did y--"

"Sevarcos too? You really helped the freeing the mine workers even though that wasn’t your direct mission?"

"--was all you, even Akiva?"

She tries to listen to the cacophony of questions as they fly at her but it’s all coming so fast. Everything she heard was true and she answered honestly, whether it was in her best interest to do so or not.

"That’s all me," she says with a sigh. She feels uncomfortable how they’re looking at her like she’s some kind of person worth admiring. The soldiers and guards were all taken with her but for the life of her she couldn’t figure out why.

"I take it you heard of me before you got your assignment today?" she asked, though it was clear they knew something of her life or at least her service history.

"We weren't assigned--we _volunteered_ ," the older male guard replied proudly. " Commander Rycell is an asshole, and we didn’t want any of his men in charge of your safety."

The only female of the group speaks up next. "We learned about you in The Academy. We know war isn’t glamorous, but you were a hero to a lot of people--still are."

Cara's face scrunches up at the odd placed praise and flattery. Din would call that her ' _receiving a compliment_ ' face. 

"Just tell me my face isn’t in a textbook somewhere," she says, as she rolls her eyes at how ludicrous she finds it they just called her a 'hero'.

"No, but I have your trading card," the youngest of the male guards says, but backtracks at her look of horror, "Sorry, that was supposed to be a joke."

One of the other male guards she had not heard speak before comes to the poor guy's rescue as he addresses Cara again. "Everyone knows who you are, and most people hoped the Republic would never find you. You’re kind of a legend among soldiers."

Cara smiles and how insane this all sounds. It's so crazy that she can only make light of it. "You're making me feel _really_ old, kid. Like, _ancient_. I’m not old enough to be a legend, come on."

"Sorry", the young guy says apologetically.

Cara puts on her friendliest face and flashes her best smile. _May as well have some fun while she can_. 

"Tell you what, you can make it up to me by letting me out of these binders."

“I—Uh, I-mean…,” the young male guard stammers, and it makes Cara laugh out loud.

Her laugh dies down to a chuckle. Her hands are bound together but she pats the poor guy on the shoulder since he looks like he might have a panic attack any second. "Relax," she says. "I'm just messing with you kid." 

He calms down and the other guards are laughing at his expense but it's not unkind--they are all friends. She remembers that kind of camaraderie too, once upon a time. Cara continues to talk to the guards and faces the one standing to her left who’s shift on the balls of his feet. "How long you been a guard?" she asks. The male, who can't be more than 22 replies, "only a month, ma'am." 

Cara nods at his answer as it seems to check out for someone who looked so green. "Can I give you some advice that might keep you alive one day?" 

"Yeah," he says excitedly, and waits patiently for her to impart some wisdom about fighting or tactics or something equally important.

"Just a friendly tip they didn’t teach you in The Academy--You should keep your blaster out of a prisoner’s reach." He looked down and realized his service weapon was less than six inches from Cara’s relaxed hands. He jumps back and Cara chuckles with the rest of them. They seems to believe her that she's not out to hurt them at least. _Maybe this is what Din had been hoping to achieve--to give her a chance to make 'nice' with the guards. It didn't seem hard at all though. They seemed taken with her already._

"I told you kid," she says reassuringly, “I’m not going to hurt you. I have nothing against any of you. You’re just doing as you’re told. I’ve been there….."

She had tried not to think about a handful of those battles they had dredged up as an example of her heroism and bravery when in reality it had been mostly fear and adrenaline. She saved people yes, but her primary goal was hurting The Empire. She remembers Naalol specifically. It was bloody and scary--fighting at night always was. She remembers an entire town destroyed by the battle and the epic losses on both sides. It wasn't worth the loss of life from either side and certainly not the peaceful mountain villagers caught in the slaughter. Her team of droppers had come into enemy territory in the middle of the battle and divided enemy attention from the Rebel ground troops advancing through the mountain pass. That diversion and her men wiping out whole platoons while their backs were turned to the fight in front of them had been the event that turned the tide of that battle and the Rebellion had barely come out on top. 

She thinks of the strange pride she felt when she was endowed with a medal for that day. It felt wrong, given the men her team had lost, but she somberly accepted it on their behalf. She still had it on the Crest.

Din asked about it one day early on and she remembers telling him the history and goal behind the mission, focusing only on the facts and its strategic placement for the Empire. The next thing she remembered was Din holding her against his chest as she cried until she had no moisture left in her to spare for tears. She had tried to pull away, beyond mortified but he had stubbornly held on to her tight until she relaxed against him again. “I’ll never bring it up again,” he promised softly against the top of her head, “but I think you’re very brave; and no less brave for feeling emotions like the rest of us mere mortals.” Even back then she had marveled at how he could make her laugh at the most ridiculous times.

He had asked her why she kept that medal when it held so many bad memories and she something about how she was alive to keep it where so many men lost their lives that day. He had kissed her forehead and said she couldn’t possibly hold the weight of all those lives lost in the war, even those under her command. She had been terrified Din would walk on eggshells around her or treat her differently after her humiliating emotional release, but he didn’t. Instead, one day she found her medal, _which usually sat on her shelf_ , inside a small drawstring pouch that she had never seen on the Crest before. He had lied when he said he thought it would be safer in there in case Bean got his hands on it but she didn't need to hear the truth--she knew why he had done it--he didn’t want her to stare at it every time she walked by her bunk. She knew it was there and could pull it out anytime she was feeling maudlin, but Din had protected her from pointlessly torturing herself on a daily basis. It was such a _Din_ thing to do--quietly attempting to comfort her without drawing any attention to his kindness.

One of the guards near the front leans closer to her and it gets her attention again. “My father is alive because of you—you and your troops. He was an Infantryman, on the front lines on the ground on Naalol."

The other older guard next to him chimes in too. “I had uncles that were freed from slavery on Sevarcos. Whole generation of families in the Outer Rim Territories were reunited because of you." The female of the group speaks to Cara after she looks at her chronometer and realizes how much time had passed in the hallway. She gestures to the two guards in the back. "These two will walk you the rest of the way," she says, as the remaining four of them begin to split off from the group to turn down an alternative hallway. The older of the young men has parting words to her before they split off. "Just so you know, almost no one believes you belong here."

Cara doesn't want leave these strangers with the falsehood that she's someone to be admired. "I did a lot of bad shit too kid—don’t paint me like some kind of hero. I enjoyed killing each and every Imperial lackey I came across and I’m pretty sure heroes don’t enjoy killing people."

"I’m sure you did a lot of things you regret," he said in understanding. "War is ugly and they were the enemy, but you did a lot of good too."

Cara will never _not_ argue this. _With Din, with Greef, with a rock....._

She pins him with her glare. "Why do you think a couple good actions made up for all the bad?"

"Why do _you_ think the bad overshadows all the good?" he counters.

Either she couldn't find it inside herself to ruin his youthful optimism or it was the fact that it sounded remarkably like something Din would have said, but she held her tongue as he left to join the other three guards.

“Just know this,” he says, before the four extra guards turn the corner, “you have more friends here than you think.”

Then there was just Cara and the two guards as they picked up their journey down the hallway.

..........................................................

Din makes it back to the stairs at the city center, armed to the nines in case this goes to hell. Bean is in his sling harness on Din’s chest and his head is covered by a lightweight cloth. To any passerby it just looks like he’s carrying an across the shoulder satchel.

Three figures appear on the steps just as promised, but only two of them make their way down to meet him. A young to middle-aged man wearing loose fitting clothes and a robe steps forward. Din thought his choice of clothing was odd for such a metropolitan location but he wore a cape too so he just went with it....... _How did the saying go? People in glass houses....._

"My name is Luke Skywalker, but you can call me Luke" the man said, before gesturing to his side, "and this is my sister.” Din was surprised as the man extended his hand but he shook it nonetheless.

The woman never offered her name, but instead she reached out and shook his hand as well.

"Hello," she said, in a very business-like manner—professional, but not cold—welcoming, but not especially friendly. She had a striking face with eyes like Cara’s--at first glance they seemed kind, but with a strength that could melt glass if you tried to hurt someone close to her. He noticed her hair was braided as well, almost circling her head and she had brown pins holding it in place just like the ones he used this morning--he could see them from here. ‘ _Stop trying to find Cara in everything you see_ ,’ he tells himself. _Lots of people braid their hair and have brown eyes....you just miss her…._

"Oh, and the grump man lurking back there is Han," she says, as she almost forgot to mention the third member of their greeting party, "don't mind him, he’s in a mood."

"You can call me 'Mando' Din says, and the grumpy man still hanging back snorts out something that sounds like, 'easy to remember unless there more than one of you'.

The woman seems in charge of the situation and very at ease in this environment. He concludes she must work in the legal system in some way. 

"If you'll follow me," she trails off, and Din takes that as an invitation to follow her. He's cautious to appear as non-threatening as possible covered head to toe in armor and weaponry. The man in the back must be her husband, Din thinks, just from the protective way he's watching the situation. Din stares like that too when a stranger walks behind Cara.

They walk into the main foyer of the building and she continues her pleasantries. "We can walk toward the back atrium where's there's a large conference room, we should be quite comfortab--"

"Actually," Din interrupts her, "if it's not too much trouble, I'd prefer a room near the front exit. I mean no offense, but I don't know you and I'd like to not walk into a trap."

"No offense, but we don't know you either," Han mutters under his breath, but decides it's in his best interest to stop talking as the woman stares him down.

Luke decides to take over as host as he looks around for rooms near the front door.

"Jedi and Mandalorians have been enemies for a long time, but I assure you I mean you no harm," he assures Din. "Let’s just grab the first room available."

"Thank you for indulging my request," Din said agreeably. He wanted to be a gracious guest but also not become so comfortable he lost sight of what was on the line today. "I come bearing no ill will as well," he says, as they duck into the first small conference room they come across." Din purposefully walks in first to show his back to them as a gesture of trust. 

The other man, _Han_ , must know his weapons because he counters with a snarky challenge to Din's pledge of good will. "I'd believe that a lot more if you lost the amban...."

They are visibly surprised when Din unlatches it and leans it against the wall a few feet from reach. He hated the thought of disarming himself in front of these strangers but if he could put them at ease to discuss his Son’s welfare he could manage. 

They get into the room and Din sits down against everything in his body telling him to remain standing in case of a fight. Han hangs out by the door and the woman sits down at the table across from Din. Luke stands at the side of the table, but he doesn't look threatening --he just looks nervous.

"I must admit I don't know a lot about your people, and I know virtually nothing about _you_ ," Luke says honestly. "How much do you know about _me_? Why did you seek me out specifically?"

Din thinks of a diplomatic way to say this. "Truthfully, I don't know anything about you either," he says. "I just know what my wife told me. Would you like to hear her exact words or my more delicate summary? She can be a bit…..direct." 

"By all means, speak freely,” Luke responds. He’s used to ‘direct’ from his twin. “What did your wife tell you?"

"She said Luke Skywalker was some dumb farm boy who blew up The Empire’s greatest weapon and later turned out to be a the last of the Jedi. She has quite a way with words as you can tell."

Han laughs a full laugh from the back of the room and takes a step forward." “I can’t believe I’m saying this about a Mandalorian," he says in disbelief, "but I like this one.” _Anyone who called Luke a dumb farm boy to his face might be alright._ “That’s the best summary of his life I’ve ever heard.”

“Please forgive _him_ ,” the woman in front of him says, apologizing on his behalf. “We're not prejudiced but we've only had one run-in with a Mandalorian before and it ended…..sort of badly.”

“Sort of badly?” Han says in disbelief. "I was frozen in carbonite!" the man exclaims from the back of the room. _Clearly this was as sensitive subject._

“And I saved you......" she insisted, as she turns halfway in her chair to look back at him, "you sure do forget _that_ part at your leisure, don't you?”

It was like Han didn't hear her at all because he keeps talking “--and then we all almost died in the desert on a backwater shit planet.” He turned to Luke then. “No offense, kid.”

“None taken.”

"Can we get back to the subject at hand, _please_?" The woman seated across from him pleaded with both her companions.

"We never left it, your worship," Han says, like this was a perfectly ordinary sidebar. He points a finger at her and talks to Din like she can't even hear him. "It's so like her to get distracted and drive the conversation off course. _Women_........am I right?"

"You!--are you kidding me right now?" She looked like she could strangle him, but there's a sheen of amusement right on the surface. Some of it had to be to rile her up. 

Din wondered idly if this was how people saw Cara and himself when they started bickering about who saved who's ass on any given day.

The woman turned back to Din to get this back on track. "You said your wife had heard of Luke. I didn't know Mandalorians could get married. Forgive my ignorance."

"We can do everything you can do, we just can't show our faces while doing it."

He finds that bringing up Cara served to help him get to the point of all this so he goes for broke. "Actually, my wife is the whole reason we're here. She heard of you and hoped you might be able to help our son. She was sought out by the New Republic for crimes she committed years ago when she was a shocktrooper but she never stopped believing in your cause. She turned herself over voluntarily in exchange for us getting this meeting. 

The woman's face looks incredulous and more than a little furious at his story. Here eyes are huge. "You _traded_ your wife for a chance to meet Luke?!"

He laughed at her fury on Cara's behalf. "No, not at all," he assures her. "It's a long story, but my wife in her _infinite_ wisdom, turned herself in today to the Department of Military Justice for a deal for me to meet you. If you knew her you would know there's no talking her into anything she doesn't want to do. This was all her idea and I argued against it until I was blue in the face but she's the most stubborn person I've ever met. I'd have a better chance of training a crew of Loth-cats to fly a cruiser than to talk her out something she believes is right." He tries to remain calm as he speaks, defending his love for Cara. "Trust me, I would never _trade_ her for anything in the world. She's not a _thing_ \--she's a _person_ , and the best person I've ever met. She believed that you might help us and she did what she thought was necessary, despite me begging her not to." The love he had for her must have been clear in even his modulated voice, because they three individuals in the room relax slightly as he seems more human and more relatable.

"Is she's a Mandalorian as well?" the woman asks, curiously.

"No, she's not." 

She let out a sigh of relief _. 'Thank the stars,'_ she thinks. If his wife was a Mandalorian, her helmet would have been removed upon intake and things might not be so peaceful right now.

She seemed nervous and needed to do something with her hands so she reached for the pitcher of water in the middle of the table. "Water?" she asks, as she grabs cups and unstacks them.

"No, thank you," Din says kindly, "but feel free to have a drink yourself if you’re thirsty. I don't mind."

"Oh shit, I'm sorry," she apologizes, as she places the pitcher back on the table. _How could she forget he couldn't have a glass of water with the helmet?_ "I hope I didn't insult you. I run my mouth when I get nervous."

Din lets out a small chuckle to put her at ease. "You're very similar to someone else I know." _It wasn't just her smirk or her lovely face. It was her confidence, and her mannerisms and her low threshold for bullshit. She was more outwardly diplomatic than Cara, but Cara too could turn it on in the right scenario. He wishes she was here now….. She’d have them eating out of the palm of her hand._

Nearly fifteen minutes have already passed but they seem to have barely gotten to the reason behind this meeting. Luke leans against the table and addresses the Mandalorian in front of him. "I have to admit I was quite surprised when I saw that a Mandalorian had scheduled a meeting with me. I don’t know what I can possibly do for you. I had always heard that Jedi and Mandalorians had a very long, very combative history."

Din never saw himself as a diplomat or historian like the Armorer, but maybe a few words could lessen the animosity that had existed for generations but may not need to exist any longer. "We might be raised as warriors but I assure you we are a peaceful people and we don’t seek out conflict. We are content to stick to ourselves and nothing is more important to us than family. I am an individual and so are you. I hope we can look past whatever we may have heard about the people who have come before us and speak freely today without animosity."

Luke nodded and seemed agreeable to Din’s proposal that an individual did not represent the whole. _It was a refreshing idea to hear after so long of hearing about ‘us’ versus ‘them’ during the war. Maybe this Mandalorian was all right._ “We can, of course.”

“There _is_ a reason we bargained to have this meeting with you," Din started. "We have a foundling--a child. He’s my son and he’s……very special.”

Luke’s eyes widen as he gets his meaning. “He can use the force, your son?" Luke asked, not anticipating this turn of events. "How old is he?” 

"He’s only a baby,” Din answers, “but he is extremely strong. He saved my life from a fully grown mudhorn that was charging me."

“A mudhorn, are you sure?” the woman chimed in, clearly familiar with the size of the species in question and doubting his claim. “A baby did that?”

Luke seems skeptical but is hesitant to call him a liar. “I haven’t come across a baby that in tune with the force before. If what you say is true, I’d have to meet him to see if I can even communicate with one so young." Luke hadn't found many force sensitive individuals in his search to restore the Jedi and certainly not someone so strong.

_This is it……._

Din feels sick but this is what Cara's sacrifice was all for.

He fiddles with harness on his chest and the three people in the room tense up. “I'm not going for a weapon. Don't be alarmed.”

He reaches up to loosen the sling holding the kid and makes sure he has a good grasp on his little wiggly body before he removes the cloth covering his head. As soon as his head is uncovered Bean stretches out his ears and looks up at Din and chirps, happy to be able to see the familiar helmet again. Din rubs a gloved hand over his head and down one ear before he hears Luke inhale a sharp gasp.

“O my stars.....where did you?" Luke can't seem to find the words. "How?” said in awe, as he sat down heavily in the chair. _It was more like he collapsed and the chair just happened to catch him._

“You know his kind, then?” Din asked, and he wasn’t sure if he was either terrified or relieved. He might finally get some answers, but what if the answers weren’t what he was ready to hear.

Luke takes a minute before he can respond. He’s in shock. “I knew _one_ but he was hundreds of years old. He was my mentor and my friend." The Jedi seems lost in thought as a small smile graced his face at the memory Bean's face seemed to incite. He clears his throat, before rephrasing. "He was actually much more than that, he wasn’t just a Jedi Master, he was family.”

Luke chased those thoughts away, putting them aside to be dealt with in private. He gestures to the little fuzzy green baby in front of him and can't help but smile as his ears go up just a fraction at the friendly face. His fuzzy ears were almost twice the size of his little body.

“Is he really a baby?” he asks, amazed at how small he is. 

Din tightens his hold on him as Bean begins to squirm to get on the table separating him from their new 'friends'.

“He's almost 52 standard years old but he seems to develop and age as a baby would, yes.”

“Hello there,” Luke says kindly to the little one staring him down curiously with big dark eyes.

The Jedi appeared 15 years younger as he lost himself in the wonder of the baby in front of him. Bean had that effect on everyone it seemed. 

The recognition was clear to Din. Luke really must have known an individual of this species from years ago. You couldn't fake that kind of reaction--it just wasn't possible. Luke reached forward and Din instinctively pushed his chair back. Anyone who showed an interest in his kid but him on edge.

Din is watching this Jedi closely who might have the same gift as his son. He sees awe written across his whole face, but it was totally different than the awe the Imperial client had shown before. What Din saw in Luke's eyes wasn't awe at his power, it was awe in his very _existence_. It was affection and even love; like recognizing and old friend or seeing a long lost family member. 

“I swear to you, no harm will come to him," Luke says, conveying as much sincerity as he can manage. He can see Din's reluctance and his protectiveness clear as day. "I know my word doesn’t mean much to you, but I swear it.” He tries another approach that doesn’t involves touch. “Can I try to talk with him? Using the force, I mean.”

Din tamps down his fear at letting the little guy out of his arms. This is what they're here for--to see if this Jedi (Luke) can help him and their first step is trying to communicate. If Cara were here, she would laugh at his protectiveness while pretending she wasn't battling with her own. Din sighs and leaves it up to Bean. “What do you say kid? You trust this guy?"

He wants to like this man who didn’t deny his request for help outright but Din’s anxiety is through the roof. “It’s okay Bean,” he says, so quietly that only his boy can hear him. Bean takes only one step across the table toward Skywalker before sensing Din’s worry and turning back to look to him for guidance. The kid didn’t want to cause him to worry so he stopped in his tracks and Din feels guilty for the fuzzy kid holding back his natural explorative nature on his account. “Go if you want to. Don't worry about me.” He didn’t want Bean to feel his fear and uncertainty but inside he was a storm of emotions. Having to watch his son waddle away from him where only an hour ago he watched Cara walk away would be too much.

Before they begin, Din wants to know exactly what he’s signing the kid up for. He understands next to nothing of all this. “What exactly is this ' _Force_ ' people speak of?”

“The simplest explanation is that it’s an energy field created by all living things,” the Jedi explains. “It surrounds us and penetrates us; it binds the galaxy together. Through the force he can see other things as well: Other places. The future. The past. Old friends long gone. It is not meant used be used as a weapon, only for defense."

“And you’re saying it won’t hurt him? Din confirms. "Trying to talk with him, I mean.”

“No, it won’t hurt and if he appears uncomfortable in any way I’ll stop immediately.” Din had no choice. He had to trust this guy.

Din knew this Jedi, _Luke_ , couldn’t see his face but he must have sensed his hesitation to be parted from his child even for a moment. “Why don't you sit with your Dad for this, huh?” Luke says to the kid, before he addresses Din.

“You can keep him in your lap. I don't want to scare him if he's never done this before.” Din was grateful for the out. He didn’t want to let the kid out of his sight or out of his lap, but he knows his kid has an incredible way of sensing the intentions of people and their spirit--their very heart. Din’s anxiety is through the roof, but he forces it down to encourage his kid to believe in his own confidence. 

Bean seems perfectly relaxed in his presence and if Bean trusts this guy he can’t be that bad.

“Okay,” Din finally agrees, after a long moment of uncertainty. “You can try to communicate with him.” _Just don't hurt him......please._

Din watched as Luke allowed his eyes to drift shut and in his lap he watched Bean’s huge dark eyes flutter closed as well. From there it was just quiet--it was almost like he was dreaming. The kid's ears moved and twitched but he seemed peaceful and not at all afraid.

“He's had quite the life,” Luke concludes, after just a few moments of shared silence pass by. Their eyes are both closed but the Jedi is giving him a running commentary likely to ease his anxiety at the silence that fills the room. Luke laughs an open and free laugh at something the kid must have said. “I keep trying to change the subject to ask more about _him_ , but he keeps trying to tell me how great _you_ are instead--how you saved him. It's pretty adorable actually, how he only wants to talk about you. He loves you very much.”

Another moment passes before Luke speaks again. “He knew when you extended your finger toward him that you would be his. He adored you from the very beginning.”

“What else does he say?” Din asks. He's skeptical about this ' _force'_ he can't see and none of those things Luke's said are specific enough for Din to buy into this mind-reading business since he's never seen Bean do this trick before. 

Luke is sitting still as he listens closely to what the kid is telling him. “He says that you got hurt in the desert and he tried healing your arm, but you kept putting him back in his bed. He says that you have a whole box full of toys under the table, but he still likes the shiny metal ball the best.”

_'All the force mumbo jumbo might be true,'_ Din thinks _. Damn._

“He says you worry when he falls asleep after tapping into his power, but he says you shouldn't--it's no different than after you exercise or have a long day. He said the other night you were playing cards with another woman like you and he liked getting to hold the cards.”

Luke and the kid in Din's lap open their eyes at the same time, the conversation apparently coming to its end.

“He is extremely strong," the Jedi insists, clearly impressed. "I’ve never seen anyone channel the force so effortlessly, not even my old Master. He’s incredible. I thought I was the last Jedi, but that’s clearly not the case. If he chose to train to use his natural abilities he would be unbelievably powerful."

Din was understanding and yet fearful of what he just heard. He knew where he was coming from but he would protect his kid at all costs. "I know what it’s like to be the last of my kind too. Mandalore was destroyed by the Empire and our clan slaughtered when they tried to protect him. As much as I can identify and sympathize with you not wanting to be the last of your kind, I have to make this point crystal clear--I don’t care about his _power_ or his _strength._ He’s my son. I only want him to be happy and know peace. I never want him to know anger or hatred or fear. I just want what’s best for him."

Luke seems to not only accept but be comforted by his words. "This little one has seen terrible things but he only knows security now, thanks to you."

"Did he say anything else?" Din asks. 

"He’s told me so much. It’s hard to describe though--thoughts shared this way are non-linear. We’ve had a month worth of communication in just a few minutes, but they’re all on top of each other. With practice he could get better at projecting what he’s thinking. With time he may even be able to share a link with you to let his thoughts be known to you."

 _‘That would be amazing,’_ Din thinks _. He would love to know what their kid was thinking, what he worried about, or what he wanted. To have some sort of dialogue would be life-changing in the best way._

"There is one thought he keeps focusing on though," Luke says seriously. “He's worried about his mother, that much is very clear” he says, with a frown. “He says she's in the city…..and she has tears on her face.”

AT his words, the woman is already busy typing something into the computer at her wrist. "You said she was taken into custody today?" she asks, as she's searching some database, and Din nods. "Over and hour ago," he says, to give them a time frame to search within. Luke turns to the woman at his side, but she is already out of her chair and halfway to the door. He calls out to her as she seems like she's already on a mission.

“Leia, are you going to chec—"

“Leia?!” Din says, in disbelief and he stands abruptly trying to appear as nonthreatening as possible. _He knows that name--he heard Cara use it._

At her name, the woman pauses, but her face still looks like she was about to go raise hell before he interrupted her.

“Yes…..?” she says, uncertainly.

“Leia Organa?” Din asks in disbelief, “is that your name?”

(she was still working out the issues with her last name to be honest: Skywalker, Solo, Organa, or a hyphenated combination of a selection of those? It was complicated but that discussion was for another time)

“Yes. that's my name,” she admits as she lets go of the doorknob and turns back to the Mandalorian. _Had she never introduced herself by name? Did this man know her?_

“I think you know my wife.” He didn’t mean it to come out as an accusation, but he couldn’t believe this was the woman Cara had spoken of.

“Do I ….?” she asked skeptically. She found it hard to believe she knew the wife of a Mandalorian, but he had seemed nothing but sincere up until this point. “I meet lots of people through my position. What is your wife’s name?”

“Cara” he said, and he felt lighter just at saying it.

“Cara Dune,” he specifies, “do you know her?” He said again in a rush. Was this the person Cara though might be able to help them? “She said she knew you, but you might not remember her.”

She looks at Din like a just grew a second head and she asks him in disbelief, “your wife is Carasynthia?" She clearly knew her, and Din felt hopeful for the first time in the last hour.

“Yes. But I’d advise you not use her full name if you know what’s good for you.”

“Let me get this straight," she says, sounding more frantic every second. "Cara’s his mother?” she asks, and she sounds utterly shocked but strangely happy at the same time. 

"Yes. She's his mother. She’s the reason we’re here."

She looks incredulous as she remembers the story he told earlier of how they secured this meeting. “And you’re telling me she turned herself into the Justice Hall this morning?” Her voice was getting higher and higher as she continued. She was getting worked up by the second, he could tell.

“Yes," he replies, and tried to give the short version of the story. "There was a bounty on her head from the Military Justice department as a war criminal. She turned herself in so she coul----"

“What a kriffing idiot!” she exclaimed, as she cuts him off mid-sentence. She hightailed it to the open door before turning back last-minute to give the men explicit instructions in her absence.

“Wait here!” she commands the 3 men (and one small one) in the room with a voice that didn’t invite any disagreement. “I’m fixing this mess NOW!” she said with such force, that neither himself nor Bean, nor Skywalker even thought of moving from their seats. They hear her shoes echoing as she walks down the hallway and then they hear her voice ring out, “get out of my way before I _move_ you out of my way." She must have reached the guard who stands at the building junction and had no time for his presence between her and her goal.

The man who had been standing at the back of the room finally came forward toward the table. He swaggered more than he walked, and he straddled a chair next to Luke to speak to him.

“I pity every single person who’s in between her and the holding enter,” Han said and Luke nodded. Din thought about correcting them that she had swung by medical first, but the charade was over this point and she would definitely be in general holding by now.

Han didn't seem to like awkward silence and attempted to fill it with smalltalk. “So….what kind of ship you fly, Mando?” Han asked tauntingly, clearly expecting it to be some new flashy superfluous model. He wanted to have a reason to needle him further.

“A Razor Crest," Din replies without elaborating. 

Han was surprised at that and he let out a whistle. “That’s actually a pretty sweet ship," he admitted. " Not many of those in space these days but it’s a tried and trusted model. Sturdy and reliable. Two sets of forward guns?”

“Four,” Din states with pride. “It’s been modified. What about you?”

“Corellian freighter. Won her in a hand of sabacc. Fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy.”

“You race?” Din asks. This guy seemed like a like enjoyed a good joy ride.

“Used to be a smuggler. Have to fly fast so you don't get dead fast.”

“Smuggler huh,” Din ponders aloud. “You ever did the Kessel Run?”

At that, Skywalker put his face into his hands and rests his elbows on the table. He knew the conversation was out of his control at that point. “Oh god, don’t get him started.”

“Lighten up kid,” Han says, and flashes a winning smile. “We got some time to kill and I’m sure our new friend would love to not be bored out of his mind....helmet.....whatever.” He pulls out a deck of cards from his jacket pocket.

“You any good?” Han asks, gesturing at the deck.

“Pretty damn good, yeah.” Din responds, more than happy to have a distraction while Leia takes care of business where he couldn't. These two men seem to think she has it under control.

“Me too, want to play?” Han asks, as he already starts dealing the cards.

“Oh my Gods,” Luke said. "Really? We're playing cards _now_?"

“You in or you out junior?”

Luke sighs. “Fine deal me in.” Luke knows they have a while until they get an update. It had been a while since he last saw his sister that riled up. “Leia might be gone a while,” he admits, addressing Din. “She looked like she was on a mission.”

Han chimes in at that description. “More like a _warpath_ , but same difference."

Han deals two cards face down to Din and Bean reaches out excitedly. “What do you say, kid? You want to hold my cards? We might even let them win a few rounds since we’re guests.”

Continues in chapter 2

........................................................


	2. All of it

Chapter 2

The two guards station themselves outside the medial office and Cara continues inside on her own. She's greeted by an older woman, but she barely takes notice as she can only think about how pointless this whole debacle is.

“I am going to kill that kriffing bastard. That blurgg-headed shiny piece of—how dare he….. “

The older medical officer doesn’t seem afraid of her since Cara’s ire is clearly focused on someone else. “I’m going to take the binders off you so you’re more comfortable. Are you planning on hurting me, girl?”

“No, of course not,” she replies, “just that man who brought me in. How could he lie like that and make me look like some weak delicate flower?” She’s practically steaming just saying it out loud again. “Wait, did you just call me ‘girl’?”

“So, you admit he was lying?” _Usually women held on to that defense long past it being proven false. 'This was a strange one…..' the other woman thought to herself._

“Yes! Of course, he was lying!” Cara all but yells again, tired of saying the same thing over and over. “Do I _look_ pregnant to you? I hate to imply you’re terrible at your job lady, but if you think I’m pregnant you might be in need of a different career path.

“At least you're honest, honey” the woman laughs. “He’s not the first person to try that excuse, let me tell you--we get this scenario a lot. Get undressed and place your clothes in the bin. Give me a urine sample, I’ll take some blood, and we can get on with this. If we get you over to general holding in the next half an hour you won’t miss mealtime.”

The medical officer takes off Cara’s binders so she can get undressed and change into a cloth draped smock and hideous elastic cloth shorts. She fills the cup as instructed in the lavatory and walks back into the room. She’s slightly less pissed off since she had a list of tasks to focus on, but she’s still imagining punching Din in his shiny protected face.

She misses that stupid face already…… She’s not angry as much as she is mortified and strangely disappointed that he felt he had to ‘ _save_ ’ her at the last minute. _Okay so she might be a little angry too….._

“You can call me Elma, by the way” the woman says, as she beckons Cara over to the chair next to the phlebotomy supplies. Cara’s so irate she hardly pays attention to having her blood drawn and doesn’t even feel the needle go in. She’s still muttering under her breath at what she’s going to do to Din when she gets her hands on him. _What was he thinking? So what? He bought her 15 minutes max? What could possibly happen in the 15 minutes he bought her? She was going to kill that nerf-herding idiot._

Cara’s sitting in a chair with a piece of gauze in the crook of her elbow while the medical officer pitters around the room doing whatever useless analysis she has to do on the pair of samples to get this show on the road. The chime from the instrument is an annoyingly pleasant sound and the medical officer, _Elma apparently_ , goes over to read the display. "Well, that's it then," the older woman concludes without preamble and Cara stands up to leave so she can make her way to general population. "Wait, where are you going?" the older woman asks, like Cara was a child wandering off without knowing where she was going.

"General holding,” she replied, like the other woman wasn’t all too bright. “The guards waiting in the hallway will escort me. You said I could still get dinner."

“You're staying in medical isolation for the foreseeable future, but I _will_ grab you dinner.” Elma hardly even looks at her as she speaks. She’s busy flushing the instrument with some kind of buffer…….

“Do I _look_ injured to you?’ Cara says, as she looks down at her very intact arms and legs. “You really need to take some more medical classes…..”

The medical officer chuckles as she finally turns to face her ‘prisoner-turned-patient’.

“You’re pregnant honey. Make yourself comfortable--this will be your room for quite a while."

Cara just stares at her.

“Haha, good one," she deadpans, not impressed by this woman's attempt at pulling one over on her. "You’re horrible at telling jokes.” Cara says, with very little humor in her voice. “I just told you he was lying--I admitted it. You just wasted your time running that thing. It clearly needs maintenance.”

“It’s perfectly calibrated,” the officer argues. “This certainly isn’t the first time I've seen someone desperately make that claim but it's usually sorted out fast enough. I've never seen it turn out true though…. Congrats, you’re the first.”

“Your ‘calibrated’ machine must be broken. I still have an implant—explain that then," Cara challenged her, not appreciating being lied to.

Elma laughed at the stubbornness of her patient. _This was one tough nut to crack._

“I know. I scanned it when you came in and you were cursing up a storm. It lost efficacy almost a year ago.”

“No, now I know you’re lying,” Cara says, knowing she has the high ground. “I know it expires in a few weeks or so.”

“You got it when you enlisted right?” Elma doesn’t wait for Cara to nod, before continuing on. “It's true, it was one of the long-term implants you had inserted, but it was recalled over a year ago.”

…….

….

…

“What?” 

Cara can't believe what she just heard. Maybe she wasn't listening closely enough. She must have misheard her.

“The serial number of yours ends in 1144802. Every device ending in serial number 1133500- 1189000 was recalled for not meeting manufacturer specifications. In layman’s terms it was faulty--the level of hormones leeched too rapidly so it was useless. Everyone was contacted and informed by the manufacturer, but when you ' _left_ ', there was no way to contact you.”

Cara isn’t speaking but it seems she still has her attention, so she elaborates. “Here's the recall notice. There were a hell of a lot of lawsuits, let me tell you.” The officer pulls up the document on her data pad and gives Cara a chance to read over it.

Cara reads through it quickly, but she’s having trouble processing what she’s reading.

“You're …..lying……… I don't know why, but you are.” Cara can’t wrap her brain around any other explanation. If she accepts what she’s hearing her brain might just explode.

“I'm not,” the woman insisted kindly, trying to convey honesty in her kind smile. “Your blood and urine don't lie. Your levels of HCG are through the roof.” 

“I don’t know what that means,” she admits, though it pains her to admit she doesn’t know something another person feels is common knowledge.

The officer fills her in with surprising patience. “HCG is a hormone that adults don’t produce at detectable levels--only embryos make it. It’s made from the placenta and it basically tells your body to make and maintain a comfortable nourishing place for the embryo to develop.”

“But I don't......I don't look any different," Cara replied in her defense, but that wasn’t entirely true. Her pants _had_ been tighter than normal lately and she depended on her support bra to minimize any bounce whatsoever to keep her from cringing with every step.

“Of course not, it's still early,” Elma explained. “From the HCG levels, I'd say under 3 months.”

“Are you.....” Cara can't even find a nice way to ask what she wants to ask. She doesn't trust people but as impossible as this seems, the evidence doesn’t seem that far-fetched.

“Are you playing a trick on me? she asks, losing her calm denial. “Or did someone tell you to......did…..did someone put you up to this?”

 _‘What could she possibly be getting out of making this up?_ ’ Cara asks herself.

“It’s not a trick,” Elma assures her. “Whatever those idiots in Legal Affairs might be plotting, it goes against the oath I took as a medical provider to lie about your health.”

The look on Cara's face remains skeptical but there's a flicker of something else right under the surface. _Cara still thinks she’ll need something more concrete than this before she falls for it._

“You really didn't know?” the older woman asks her, no longer teasing her, but genuinely concerned at how she would take this news.

“I still don't believe you.” she spoke aloud to the woman in front of her; doubling down on her insistence she couldn’t be right, but her mind was already somewhere else entirely. She couldn’t help but think about Din. _She couldn’t figure it out. How did he know? He just made a last-ditch gambit and opened his big mouth. Was it a lucky guess or just a total bullshit claim to keep her safe? What was she supposed to believe--his random outburst just happened to be true? Din was never right…...._

This lady's demeanor softens even more at the lost look on Cara's face as it sinks in.

“You really haven't had _any_ symptoms?" she asks Cara kindly, trying to get her to focus on her words. "You've had no nausea, breast tenderness, sweats, tiredness, bloating….?”

‘ _Shit,_ ’ Cara cursed inwardly to herself. She’d had all of those, but they had been under such weird stress lately. _That had to be it._ She thinks back on it--she could explain all those things away…..

Their last night on Coruscant the Armorer had purchased some meat for skewers as a celebratory meal before they took off the following day. Meat was such a luxury item there that it had been quite expensive and hard to come by so she had helped pick it out in the market. Cara was practically salivating at the thought of dinner all day but as soon as the meat hit the grill, she had to leave the room at the smell. She picked it out herself and smelled it just hours earlier so it couldn’t have gone bad that quickly…. .

Once the smell of the cooking meat had dissipated, she managed to get down a few bites off the skewer but she still felt bad at turning her nose up at such a thoughtful gesture from their friend. She hoped she hadn’t insulted her with how little she managed to put away and she ate extra helpings of the vegetables to make up for it. 

_Damn. That example wasn’t helping her make her argument so much. She tries to think of something else._

'Did she have fatigue?' she asks herself, and she immediately thinks of her bone-weary tiredness. Not only had she been unable to train at the standard at which she held herself to, but she had a hard time even staying awake through dinner. During their unpacking endeavor on Coruscant she had to take a seat more than once as it felt like she couldn’t catch her breath and she needed a rest. Furthermore, she and Din woke up at almost exactly the same time every morning, but she had been so tired he had been the one to wake her up almost daily for weeks. If he didn’t wake her himself, she would sleep in for hours; almost hallway through the morning before she woke up on her own.

_Uhhh……okay……also not a great example........shit._

He breasts had been sore too. They ached at various times throughout the day and she had never loved her sports bra as much as she had lately--she almost never took it off. It wasn’t just any bounce that killed her; it was her nipples that were torture. To say they were sensitive was a huge understatement. Din loved to kiss every inch of her chest and she normally loved it just as much as he did, but lately even the thought of his lips brushing against her made her tense up in anticipation of the sharp pain she knew would follow. At first, she thought maybe he had just been a tad overzealous in his worship of what he called her ‘ _gorgeous breasts’_ and she was just bruised, but this wasn’t that. He was never rough in any way even when she begged him ‘more’ or ‘harder’.

Now, he couldn’t even run his soft tongue over her sensitive skin without her almost arching off the bed, and if he took her nipple into his hot mouth, _which she normally loved_ , she almost bucked him right off her in blind reflex to the sharp sensation. She even had to cover her chest in the shower to prevent the spray of the water from touching her. She laughed remembering how Din had apologized profusely the first time she had hissed as he worked his mouth down over her chest as a prelude to an otherwise ordinary morning of lovemaking. She had brushed it off as just their exuberance getting the better of them or just hormones……well, she was half right it seemed.

_Oh shit……_

Her pants hadn’t fit right in the past two weeks either. She had been so bloated she could hardly fasten them. She abdomen had been softer but she just assumed she had put on a little weight. She wasn’t training as hard as usual either and that seemed a likely culprit to explain the weight gain until now….. Now she wasn’t so sure. _Could there actually be some truth to this woman’s claim?_

“It's okay to not be happy right away,” she hears Elma say from beside her, where she’s pulled over a chair as well. “It's a lot to take in if you weren't expecting it”

“I'm not...” Cara starts to say, before she changes her mind about what she wanted to say, “this isn't……..”

She wasn't _unhappy_. Her brain was too filled with other thoughts to be anything other than shocked with maybe just the slightest flicker of something more wonderful. The family she had already found had been like a dream. She and Din had an amazing kid--he was fuzzy and green—and they already lived as a family so why was this so much harder to wrap her brain around? _She never even thought there could be more._ Bean was more than she ever thought she deserved. Maybe she had managed to slip that one by the universe, but a second one….? She was afraid that if anyone looked too closely at her family, they’d see how unqualified she was and it would be taken away from her. Bean had been the most welcome blessing but a second baby…that was a gift she knew she didn’t deserve. _Could she have really gotten so lucky twice?_

As much as Bean was her baby, he had never really been a baby in the most helpless sense of the word. He could already walk and had complex emotions by the time she had allowed him to take over her life. Sure, she’d protected him with her own body more than once, but this was different. If this was actually real, this would be depending on her body to protect a little creature that was entirely dependent on her for its very existence. _What if she let them down? What if her strong and athletic build wasn’t soft enough to nurture someone so small?_ Bean had chosen her and claimed her as an acceptable mother, but a baby inside her didn’t have any choice. _What if she wasn’t good enough? What if as soon as she admitted she was happy, this turned out to be a joke?_ She couldn’t let herself get attached to a little person that probably (more than likely) existed because as soon as she did, this was something that could be used against her—used against Din. She couldn’t explain that to a perfect stranger, so she settled for another similar but completely true statement. “This wasn't how I expected my afternoon would go.”

She wasn’t _unhappy_. She was just scared. She was even more scared at how ‘ _the opposite of unhappy_ ’ she was as the news became more and more irrefutable. She felt weird. Like she had just been let in on a secret that she should have already known but didn't know to look for. 

“I can tell you how far along you are if you contestant to an ultrasound,” she heard the woman say from beside her. “It's not invasive and it won't hurt.”

“It's safe for...you know....?” Cara asked, as she gestured to her general abdomen area. _It's amazing how quickly she turned protective. She felt her eyes get wet at how much she wanted to protect this helpless bundle of cells she had never even seen or was sure existed._

“Of course, it’s safe," the officer replies. "If it's too much though, we can put it off." 

_No, she didn’t want to put it off._ "I want to see it." If this was real, she wanted to see it with her own eyes and if this was all one big joke, then no harm done--That was a lie, it was toying with her already frayed emotions. As much as she knew it couldn’t be real a part of her desperately wanted it to be true _. A part of Din she’d carry with her through the days to come._

"I wish Din was here."

“ _Din_?” she hears the woman asks distractedly.

_Shit. She slipped up. Trying to fix it now would just draw more attention to it._

“My husband,” she clarifies. No one would know the Mandalorian who brought her in was named Din. She felt a little comfort at just saying his name.

“You think he'll be happy?” Elma asks, clearly making small talk as she sets up the instrumentation to her left. “Some men need some time to take to the idea.”

“I don't know what he'll say, but he's great with kids. ‘ _We have a son,_ ’ she wants to say. But she can't let that slip.

“Just so you know, I still don’t believe you," Cara says stubbornly, "but I don’t think you’re lying on purpose.”

“That’s progress.” Elma says in reply, as a grin graces her face.

“You can lay down on the table,” she instructs her, and Cara goes along with it. “Go ahead, lean back, make yourself comfortable.” Cara is far from comfortable, but she allows herself to be maneuvered into a reclining position without too much protest. “I’m going to pull down the waistband your shorts,” Elma announces, before she touches her. _She’s dealt with jumpy soldiers before._ She folds them down lower than Cara had expected and tucks a towel into the waistband and drapes it over her legs. She’s is so tense she’s about to jump off the table any second. She keeps her eyes on the door and her muscles are tensed to spring up at the smallest noise.

“You can relax,” the other woman insists. “There are two guards outside the door and this is a medical facility. You won't be harmed here.”

The medical officer dims the lights and Cara tries not to think of Din as the lights go out. She had come to appreciate low light more than she ever thought she would since meeting him.

There’s a clear gel applied in a warm glob that doesn’t hurt at all and then a rounded wand of some sort is passing over her abdomen, low enough that she’s glad she hadn’t put off shaving. She figured whatever scan she was doing would be centered more around her navel, but she clearly wasn’t the expert here.

“What are you doing?” she asks, because she curious but also to fill the awkward silence.

“Trying to find this little bean,” Elma says cheerily, with the kind of determined excitement one would have on the first day of an epic journey.

Cara flinched at the name ‘bean’ and tried to force herself to relax. Lots of people use the word ‘bean’ for something small and cute. _Don’t think about Bean now…._

Her anxiety during the scan must have been misread by the medical officer because she tried to reassure her why it was taking so long to locate. “Don't worry, it takes some time this early and I'm not an ultrasound tech by any means. If I can't locate it, I'll get someone more experienced to come in and ----"

“--Nevermind, there it is.”

At the excited sound of Elma’s voice, Cara leans up on her elbows to get a better look. Her excitement may have been _just a little_ contagious. “You'll have to explain what you're seeing, all I see is black surrounded by gray.”

She listens closely to hear the anatomy lesson. “This black area--that's fluid. And there, off to one side is.....” Elma trails off as she pulls out the keyboard. She types something but doesn’t seem keen on finishing her thought. A scale bar appears on the screen.

Cara is getting antsy at her continued silence while she fiddles with the screen.

“Off to one side, is _what_?”

Elma focuses on finding the best angle to show her before freezing the screen, adding the text, and finishing what she had started to say.

“That’s your little passenger; the cutest secret stowaway I’ve ever seen.”

On the screen above a little body appears the words ‘Hi mommy’ in small plain text as she had typed them in.

Cara’s never seen a child _in utero_ before but it’s so obvious what she’s looking at from the side, it needs no explanation. There is a head, a spine, little arms and legs, and the cutest little butt she’s ever seen. ‘ _Just how far along am I_ ,’ she wonders; this looks like a whole person already. She was expecting a blob at best.

This was a whole person that she and Din created out of nothing…..They had nothing before they had each other and it wasn't that long ago so they took nothing for granted. She was amazed at what they had accomplished together. Two lonely people who may have never crossed paths in the vastness of the universe had in fact met and they ended up creating a new life. It took no conscious effort, no credits, and no fighting; all it took was their love for one another.

“It's amazing," she says, and she doesn't even recognize her own voice with how soft it suddenly is.

“I'll take a few measurements, but you can just watch,” the other woman suggests. She unfreezes the screen and has to chase down the little bean again. Once she finds it, she adjusts the controls and suddenly the image is much larger. “This is a side view, let me see if he or she will cooperate so we can see them straight on.”

Cara doesn’t speak. Her brain is too full of what she’s seeing to ruin the moment with words.

“Here....." Elma says, as she find a good plane to show off. "There we go. Let's look here....”

The woman performing the scan points out every part: the head, arms, and legs, but there’s no need. It’s so perfectly formed Cara could easily see all the anatomy herself. They're just more than just the amorphous nebulous idea of a baby Cara had in her mind; they have ears, and a nose, and even little fingers. She switches to a 3-dimensional view for just an instant and Cara sees the little one has his or hers arms raised near its ears and its little hands keep covering its perfect face as it appears to be sleeping. It reminds her so much of how Din sleeps with his hands over his face she has to swallow down a lump of emotion before she makes a total fool of herself. Her cheeks are wet but she doesn't even try to wipe at them. It's the most perfect little person she's ever seen. Every once in a while it brushes its hands over its face and her heart skips a beat at the innocence and beauty of it.

“It’s a little person," Cara states and that might be the biggest understatement of the century.

“Yes, it certainly is.”

Red and blue light up part of the screen and she hears something about how the blood flow is perfect and strong. The image zooms in onto its little torso and the older woman draws her attention to the very center. “Look here, this flickering,” she says, and Cara can see what she’s pointing out almost immediately. Her eyes are drawn directly to the flapping motion of the black and white pixels. “That’s its little heart beating.”

“Wow.”

“Listen to this. This is the best part…..” She fiddles with the screen controls again and a sound fills the darkened room.

_swoosh swoosh, swoosh swoosh_

_swoosh swoosh, swoosh swoosh_

_swoosh swoosh, swoosh swoosh_

“What is that,” Cara asks, as the repetitive even sounds fills the room. “is that………..?”

“It's your baby's heartbeat. Pretty amazing isn’t it?”

_Holy shit._ It has a heartbeat like a real person too. Cara is surprised at how comforting this sound is for some reason. It’s so steady and real, but it seems awfully fa—

“It's so fast,” she says in a tone that sounds slightly concerned. “Is that nor—"

“Perfectly normal,” Elma answers, anticipating her common concern. “It's right in the middle of the normal deviation-140 bpm”

“It's beautiful,” Cara says, in total amazement. She’s watching it flex and stretch in these fine little delicate movements when suddenly she sees it kick so hard it disappears half out of the frame. “Did it just ....did it just move?” She asks. She can’t help it, she laughs.

“Yes, it most definitely did," the medical officer agrees and also lets out a real laugh in response to Cara’s amusement. “That was a hell of a kick. Just wait until you feel the move for the first time. It's life-changing.”

“What does it feel like?” the curious woman asks.

“People describe it differently,” she replies. “I’d say it was like soap bubbles popping, a little fish swimming, or this hollow thumping. Then as they get stronger you can actually see and feel an arm or leg as they stretch and use you as a punching bag. By the look of you, not even knowing your husband, this'll be one strong kid.” Elma goes to take the wand away and hands Cara a second towel. “I'll let you wipe off....”

“Wait! Are you done?” Cara asks, not wanting it to be over so soon. She barely even got to enjoy it before it was over. “Can you do it again?”

Elma laughs at her change of heart from not twenty minutes ago. “You more on board now since you've seen it? You believe me finally?”

“Don’t be a smartass,” she says, without any real bite. “I just want to see it a few more seconds, that’s all.”

“Sure,” she agrees, and takes another few casual passes over her abdomen for no medical reason other than curiosity.

Cara doesn't care if she looks like an idiot or if this woman thinks she's weak. She smiles when it kicks so hard again Elma has to go in search of it to get it back in focus. _That’s a hell of a kick._

_She's stunned. More than that she's in awe. She's never seen Din's face, but in a way she just had through the beautiful life they had created together. She saw a little developing face that was a combination of the two of them and it was surreal. She tried and failed to push the image of her own mother out of her mind as suddenly she pictured her face. For the first time in a long time she let herself focus on her own Mama's face and feel the grief at wishing she was here. She would have loved to tell her this news; loved to have her meet Bean and accept Din. She hated the Empire all over again as she remembered she'd never get to share any of this with her because of them._

She forcibly shook those thoughts from her head. She would not let those assholes take anything from her ever again--they couldn’t steal one minute of her happiness in this moment either. This revelation was the most amazing thing that she’d ever been party to. Consciously, she knew that millions of babies were born every day and this was certainly not the first time a child had ever been conceived but it was so amazing and so miraculous to her in this very moment she felt as though she were the first woman to ever feel this way at discovering this precious gift. No one could have ever possibly felt as she did right now. This child was special and she was the most lucky woman alive.....no one else could come close in comparison.

On the other side of the spectrum there was also a comfort knowing she definitely was not the first and this was all but mundane to so many other people. Women since the beginning of time had gone through this same process and it felt like she was being handed a torch to keep the miracle of it alive. Every person she had ever met had a mother of their own and each of them had been in Cara's shoes now. Tales of morning sickness and tiredness and sore breasts were everywhere and almost regarded as a rite of passage to bring a child into the world. _For humans at least... other species had different tales._ Cara had never paid much attention to such 'woman troubles' before but she's starting to wish she had now. This would be a hell of a learning curve for someone who never even believed she would be a mother. She didn't know what to expect but she was relieved to realize her body had already shown it knew what to do without her reading any books or taking any classes. Her body knew what to do even if she didn't. She had missed out on the earlier signs but now she would be so much more aware of every change and every development. _How could she have not seen this before? It was so clear now._

“All of it,” Cara mutters just loud enough the other woman can make it out.

“Excuse me?” The older woman asks, not following the random comment.

“You asked about symptoms: fatigue, bloating, nausea. I’ve had all of them. I thought my pants were just getting tight or maybe my period was coming with how bloated and crampy I’ve been.

“When's the last time you bled?” she inquired.

“More than 2 months ago.” _It had been before Din’s sightseeing gift and their first night of intimacy—she knows that much._

“And that didn't clue you in?” she asks, in good humor.

“It's always been unpredictable,” Cara admits, “especially this past year—though now I know why if the implant was faulty. On top of that with all the stress, it was kind of all over the place.......”

“If you’re curious, you’re about ten weeks along based on the measurement I took,” the older woman tells her and Cara nods along at the meaningless number she has no frame of reference for. _Ten weeks seems like a long time though._

“Here.” Elma says as she prints out a small image and presents it to the woman sitting on the table now. Cara reaches out and hold it by the corner of the paper and just stares at it as it all sinks in. This is the first thing that she can touch and she runs fingers over its little hands and feet. Touching the little head of this bean makes her think of their BEAN, which made her think of Din. _How would Din find out? She couldn't tell him as long as she was in here. Would he ever even know if he couldn't get her out? What good would she be in a fight if it came down to it? What would he say when she told him? Would he be happy? She didn't think he'd be upset, but certainly in shock._

“Ten weeks?” she asks, "that sounds like such a long time." She’s doing the math in her head: _two weeks to Coruscant, two weeks unpacking, three in Nevarro, about a week to get there….._

“Before you rack your brain too hard to line up the dates, it’s measured from the late of your last menstrual period not the date of conception. Assuming you ovulate around day fourteen of a twenty-eight-day cycle, that would be about eight weeks ago.”

She re-does the math in her head. Eights weeks ago they were…..It had to be the first or second day on the forested moon or right when they left.

Din would be so goddamned smug. She’d never hear the end of how virile he was or how he was the perfect epitome of masculinity. She could hear the smugness practically seeping from underneath his helmet already. Uggh…..

All thoughts of Din’s smug boasting went out the window when she heard the medical officer speak again reminding her of the situation, she found herself in.

“I'll see to it you're kept in medical isolation for your protection. Both of you…,” she assures her. “No contact with other inmates whatsoever." 

Cara feels sick thinking about what could have happened if she had gone in and fought like she had intended had Din not made his outburst.....

She must have looked as sick as she felt because the older woman came up beside her. “I can get to something to eat if you're feeling nauseous.”

Cara pushes down her churning stomach at what could have happened and focuses on a question she had been asking herself for a while. “Why are you being so kind to me?” Cara asks, genuinely.

“Because I know who you are,” Elma says, as a simple explanation and Cara bristles. She's heard those words before. She's used to that threatening phrase when people learn who she is and what her past is. Every time she's heard that phrase, something bad has always been waiting on the other side of those words. She let her guard down and she thinks this woman must be playing her, getting her relaxed before she let on that Cara had screwed her in some way in the past and was seeking revenge. She looked around to see what weapons were around if this went bad. She didn't want to kill this woman with her bare hands….

“I know your name, Cara Dune,” Elma says seriously. “You commanded the squadron that invaded Cawa City.” She says it like not like an accusation, but also not quite a question.

“Yes,” Cara admits. _No point in denying it now._

The other woman doesn’t seem angry and it lets Cara relax just a fraction as she keeps talking. “I have given birth to four children,” she tells her, “but I only have three living today. Do you know why?”

Cara’s heart sank. _There it was._ _She must have killed this woman’s child. But that made no sens--Why would she be nice to her if that were true? Was she lulling her into a trap with her kindness?_

The older woman doesn’t let her drown in her questions for long before elaborating. “My oldest boy was killed by Major Hewex on Endor. You killed him blissfully soon after in Cawa City. You did what I couldn’t do as his mother and I owe you a debt for avenging him. Anything I have in my power to give you except an escape attempt--name it and it’s yours.”

Cara pondered her offer. Maybe she could tell Din the ‘ _developing situation_ ’ if Cara couldn’t tell him herself for any reason. 

‘ _No_ ,’ she thinks, as she rapidly shoots down that plan. If she told him now, he'd be even more worried than he already was. He'd feel even more guilty and it would eat him up. She'll focus on getting out then she’ll tell him herself. _Him and Greef were like two peas in a pod in the worrying department._

If she truly had a favor she could cash in, no matter how undeserving she felt she was of such a gift, she would not use it on the first day. She didn’t want to take advantage of this woman’s kindness, capitalizing on her loss, but she would absolutely do it if it meant getting back to Din and their kid.

_Kids …..stars. That would take some getting used to._

“You don’t owe me anything,” she insists, as the thought of using this woman doesn’t sit right with her unless she runs out of every other option. _This is only day one after all….._

“I’m _not_ a good person,” she reiterates again for the tenth time it seemed this day. “He was a monster and I enjoyed it. That makes me a monster too.”

“Why did you turn yourself in then?” the grieving woman asks curiously, waiting patiently on Cara’s answer.

She just shrugs. “It was the right thing to do.” _Not just for her, but for Bean and Din, and their friends who held her in surprisingly high regard for a reason she hadn’t figured out yet._

“That’s exactly what I thought you’d say,” she says, as a small smile graces her face. “And that proves you are no monster.”

Cara’s unsure of what to say to fill the awkward silence but she’s saved from having to fumble through some clumsy small talk at the loud commotion in the hallway.

There’s a woman's irate voice and the sound of the guards at the door forming and losing an argument against someone clearly their superior who they know better than to object to. Cara almost thinks it sounds familiar. Whoever it is, she sounds angry-- _No_ , more than angry-- she sounds livid. _She thinks she knows that voice_ ….. She can see the woman's petite shadow and a man holding her back from jumping down the guards' throats. 

She's still yelling at the guards outside the door "--I am telling you she is free to go! We don't take prisoners who haven’t been charged with any crime. We’re better than that!"

The guards must have backed down since she sees them walk off down the hallway and the door handle turns.

Whoever she thought she’d see walk through that door was no match for who pushed her way into the room like a rancor on the warpath. _There was no question now…._

"Cara? Carasynthia?" her old friend asked in disbelief. "Is that really you?"

Before Leia can make it to Cara in the middle of the room she spots the discarded binders out of the corner of her eye. She rounds on Elma like she was part of this whole mess. "Was she in binders just now?" she asks in shock and offense. Leia advances on the poor medical officer and Cara moves herself to stand between them.

"She removed them, Leia. Don't take it out on her."

Elma seems off the hook, so she goes to stand in the back of the room to stay out of the line of verbal fire.

"Don't think I've even started with you either," Leia says to Cara threateningly, even as she pulls her into a hug.

"Long time no see," Cara says, casually, which just seems to rile up the other woman even more.

"You're an idiot," she says, like it's a fact everyone should be aware of. "Who turns themselves into the authorities to get on someone's _kriffing_ calendar? Tell me, WHO?"

"It worked didn't it?" Cara argues, though she knows it's useless. 

"Just so you know, we're not done here discussing your questionable choices but there’s someone with soft ears who’s been waiting to see you who really can’t wait." Din walks in holding Bean who almost leaps out of his arms as soon as she’s an arm-length away.

It's Cara's turn to be irate after she returns Din quick and firm embrace. He's barely let go of her before she's bearing down on him. “You turn those lights off now, so I can take that helmet off and punch you in the face.”

“It's like looking in a mirror,” Han says, from the door where Leia had retreated during the reunion between Cara and her husband. _Maybe there were some similarities between the two women after all. Just a second ago he’d been holding his headstrong wife back, but who would hold back the other dark-haired woman in front of him? Han actually liked Mando, so he hoped he survived his wife’s tirade….Maybe he could give him some tips later._

“What are you still doing in the medical building?" Din asks. "Leia went looking for you in General holding.”

Cara's not in the mood to answer any questions when she has so many of her own. “I just want to know this……” she said, as she pointed her finger in his face. “How did you know and why didn’t you tell me?”

“What are you talking about?” _He doesn’t understand_. _He’s so glad to see her and she’s angry and throwing these questions at him._

She takes a deep breath and rephrases her question. “How did you know I was pregnant?”

 _'What was she talking about?'_ he thought.

“Cara, I panicked and that lie just came out of my mouth. I have no clue why I said it, but I didn’t think you’d be this angry; I just wanted to give you a few extra minutes of safety.”

“But how did you _know_?” she insists to know.

“Know what?” he asked, moving past confused to frustrated at her nonsensical question. “You’re not making any sense. What did I know?”

“How did you know that I’m------wait. You really just made it up?” Her anger deflates at his genuine confusion.

“Yes, I’m sorry, I just couldn’t think of anything else that would make them take it easy on you. I just opened my mouth and it came out. I know you’re angry at me for lying and making you look weak.”

“I was,” she admits, “…….until I realized you weren’t really lying.”

She hands him the paper but he just looks glances at it before looking at her once again. _He just wants to look at her….He thought he might never see her again just an hour ago._

“What is this?” he asks, puzzled why she’s handing him a piece of paper. _He thought she'd be more likely to hand him a live grenade than anything right now._ Paper is hardly used much at all anymore so it must be something important.

“It’s your lie that turned out to not be a lie after all.”

He just looks at her. He doesn't seem to get it, so she tries again.

“It's proof, that you can be right sometimes too. It's rare, but it happens.”

He’s still not saying anything so she tries a more direct approach.

“The medical officer called it ‘ _bean_ ’, but we already have one Bean so we’ll have to think of another name. You got any suggestions for the kid of a Mandalorian and a former shocktrooper?”

He’s staring at the paper like it might divine him some great knowledge or maybe he just can’t look away from it like she couldn’t.

“Cara what _is_ this?” The tremor in his voice is a tell-tale sign he’s starting to catch on.

“What does it look like? That’s our baby,” she says, getting some satisfaction at watching him struggle to digest this news as much as she had. “It’s the baby you put in me and my body decided to change its entire chemistry to make a comfortable home for. That little nugget is the reason I can't seem to do anything but sleep lately.”

He’s looking back and forth between her face and the little printout in his hands like he can't decide what to believe.

“We made a little perfect person,” she says, even more in awe describing it to him. At his continued silence she prods him. “I was pretty speechless too, but aren’t you going to say _anything_?”

“I uhhh…”

“It’s pretty amazing right? In the middle of all this stress and bullshit, we managed to create a little life. I don’t know how two such imperfect people could make such a perfect creation, but we did.”

“ How did--? How?” is the only question he can manage to convey and he barely even manages to get that one word out.

“You don’t seem particularly overjoyed, are you _upset_?” she asks, and feels her heart sink into her stomach. She could have given a sarcastic cheeky answer to his question of ‘how’, but he didn’t see to be in a joking mood. She suddenly wasn’t in a joking mood either. She didn’t plan for any other scenario except where was as hesitantly thrilled as she was. Maybe he really was upset. What if this wasn’t the pleasant surprise she thought it would be to him? She didn’t want him to lie on her account, or pretend to be happy if he wasn’t, but she expected him to at least say _something comforting_. Maybe he was too upset to speak at all.

“Cara, what are you saying?” His voice is so hesitant, like he wants to believe it but if afraid he might be wrong. “Is this a trick? You getting back at me for what I said in front of all those people?” He knew she wasn’t that cruel, but he had to be sure before he let himself believe it was real.

She laughs. His reaction was exactly the same as hers had been. “No, it’s definitely not a trick," she explains to her husband. "Turns out I really _am_ pregnant. I have been for a while.”

“You’re carrying my child?” he asked, and his voice sounded totally different than just a moment ago. Leave it to Din to be possessive at precisely the strangest moment. He reached out to touch her hand despite being in a relatively public place.

“Our child, but yeah.”

“This is really…..?” he asks, as he gestures to the perfectly proportioned human form printed on paper.

“This is our baby? We made this? This is ours?” His voice sounds precariously on the edge of breaking. 

_THAT was the reaction she had been waiting for._

Din's brain both shut down and went into hyperdrive at the words _'our baby'_. He thought of everything and nothing at once. He thought of the vision Bean had shown him and he remembers being a younger man accepting that he would never have a family of his own. He remembers meeting Cara and hearing her words of 'I love you' on that forested moon and watching her be led away in binders only hours ago. He thought of her tiredness and their love for each other and how desperate they had been for one another as their relationship finally took the plunge to beautiful intimacy. He wants to focus on each of these thoughts but everything is flashing in his mind too fast to keep up and Cara is still talking.....

“Yes, it’s too soon to tell the gender but they’re perfect. I even heard their heartbeat. It’s real.”

“Her heartbeat,” he hesitantly corrects her, before realizing what he said. “I think it’s a girl," he says in explanation when she just stares at him. The oldest child with the messy curls who wrapped their arms around his waist had been a girl. _This was her. He just knew it._

_Between Bean and the Armorer he wasn't sure who was right more often. Bean had the advantage of the force, but the Armorer was a woman so it probably evened out._

“It doesn’t matter to me either way, as long as they're healthy” Cara says, with certainty.

“Me neither.” After a few seconds she hears him let out a sigh. “I just can’t believe it Cara. This is.....wow.”

“Trust me, it took a while for me to believe it too. It’s pretty unbelievable.”

It must have finally sunk into his brain because he relaxes enough to tease her. “It’s not _that_ unbelievable with how you can’t keep your hands off of me….”

She laughs at that and things feel so good, _so normal_ , it feels like a weight has lifted off her shoulders. “I think you have it backwards, but okay.”

He’s still running on a high from what he just told him, but he’s concerned about her too. “Are _you_ okay? Is everything okay with ......you know?” He gestures to her middle in the most awkward way possible and it makes her laugh at his way with words. _Some things never change....._

“Yes, everything's perfect," she reassures him. "It’s a lot to take in in a short time but I think I’m happy ….. _are you_?”

There are few times he can ever remember Cara appearing unsure, but this was one of them. He was shocked by her question. He didn’t realize that wasn’t abundantly clear. His mind was racing with this rush of happiness but he clearly hadn't been able to verbalize it. Had he really done that a poor job of reassuring her that he was happy? He had been in shock—he hoped she hadn’t misinterpreted his silence. _Was she actually worried he could ever be anything other than happy?_

He wraps his arms around her and holds her as tight as he can as he whispers to her how joyful he is right now. “ _Happy_ doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface, Cara,” he insists. “Happy is what you feel when good deal on ammunition when you’re low on credits. Happy is when you put on a clean pair of socks after having your feet in boots all day. Happy is going to the practice range and you hit your target on the first shot…”

“Well, you kind of did…” she says, under the chin of his helmet, but he doesn’t even catch it.

“ _Happy_ isn’t the right word at all Cara. I’m over the moon. All the moons.....You have no idea what an amazing gift you’ve given me. I’m totally in awe of your body and what it’s doing right now. You honor me Cara, not just in this but in everything. I am so proud to call you my wife.”

“Are you really happy?" she asks as she pulls back to look directly at him, finally letting her grin shine through. "You don’t have to lie to make me feel better and if it takes you some time to get used t---"

“This is the most amazing thing I’ve ever heard. I have never been so happy as I am right now.” He had Cara and Bean, which was more than he ever thought he would have, but another child too; a child they forged together out of love for each other........ This was more than a _dream_ \--this was actually his _life_ , and he never knew it could be as good as it was right this very moment. 

Cara doesn't know the whirlwind of emotions going on in his head but does notice how gently he's holding her where he usually squeezes her much tighter. 

“Just don’t think I’m going to become some weak delicate thing to be doted on. I’m pregnant not disabled," she insists.

“I make absolutely no promises,” he says, just to rile her up but also because it’s the truth. “You are still the strongest person I’ve ever met but what kind of husband would I be if I didn’t at least try to dote on you.”

She makes a grumbling sound of acquiescence but meets him in the middle. _That's what marriage was after all._

“I won’t argue too much if you want to rub my feet I guess," she offers as her great compromise.

“Done.”

"Or my back....." If he's feeling generous, she'll throw that one in there too.

Leia comes back in while Luke hangs back at the door so as not to intrude.

Leia begins to speak and it seems like she has a lot to say.

She turns to Cara and her Mandalorian husband who isn't leaving her side and probably won't for quite some time. "We’ve only begun to look into this whole political farce but let me start with this--you are free to leave at anytime. You are _not_ a prisoner."

Cara and Din look at one another as the news sinks in. 

Leia continues to tell them what's come about in the last half an hour “Rycell is under censure as we speak. The guards outside your door are telling a very interesting story of what he did to cover up your presence in the system--they couldn’t stand the thought of you being held here. He’s apparently done this before and we’re already carefully combing through his record to see which other other prisoners here under illegal capture or payout. Hiring bounties on his own roster for individuals who have never had charges brought against them is an embarrassment to the New Republic and what it stands for in the worst possible way. You gave your life to the Rebellion and the way you left was your choice. You were never searched for as a someone who committed war crimes--the Rebellion didn’t own you and you were always free to come and go as you pleased. Your record of service was a thing of wonder, even now. We’re thankful for every bit of blood, sweat, and tears you shed to help give us a victory over The Empire. Let me make it clear, we’re indebted to _you_ , not the other way around.

“Not only was he operating outside the realm of his job description, but he was using illegal channels to bring in names from his own personal list. There are plenty of other complaints, but this alone is a gross overstepping that can’t be overlooked. He will never do this to another person I can assure you and you have my personal apology that you were targeted. If it hadn’t been for those two guards, I’m not sure how much time would have passed until it made it up the chain of command that you were being held here at all. He’s already been removed from his post pending a formal trial and his personal vendetta against you is ultimately what cracked this whole thing open. He won’t be holding any position ever again.”

She gives the news a moment to sink in.

“That being said, Leia continues, “I’d love it if you stayed a few days in the city as my guest but I can imagine how fast you want to leave this whole place behind you due to this whole shitshow. Maybe we can catch up one day in the future….it’s so good to see you after all these years.”

Cara nods her head in agreement. “I think we’d really like to just get back home but if you give me your comm channel I’ll reach out to you once things get back to normal. It’s good to see you too. Thanks for raising hell on my behalf.”

Leia laughs. “Some of it was for you, sure, but most of it was for your boy. He has the cutest ears I’ve ever seen.”

Din can feel the conversation wrapping up and he wants to get them out of here without delay. He turns to Leia, who is apparently someone of some clout in this governing system. “How can I transfer the payment for her bounty back to you?”

“Don’t,” she insists, to the surprise of both Din and Cara. “Consider it our apology that you ever went through this nightmare at all. All record of the call for your capture has been wiped. The pucks you have are all empty now. There’s no record of any of this whatsoever.”

Din has to be sure he’s hearing her correctly. “So she has a _pardon,_ then? It’s in writing?”

“She was never formally accused of any crime so there’s nothing to pardon; though if you’d like an official statement made, I can have one drafted by the end of the day."

Cara looks to him to see what he thinks. She thinks it's a good idea but wants his take on it.

“I think it might give you some closure," he says to Cara. “You can put that chapter behind you.” _Behind us._

“Okay.” she agrees.

“Okay,” Leia confirms. “We’ll get it drafted right now. We’ll give you a few minutes to get dressed and ready and then we’ll walk you back to your ship.”

“Wait!” she calls out, before their guests leave the room. “Did you learn anything about Bean?” she asks Din, before they might have lost their chance. _She had no way of knowing they had already spoken at length._

“Yes,” Din reassured her. Luke was able to talk with him. He says it wouldn’t take many more sessions until he might be able to help the kid communicate with us. _Really communicate_ I mean.”

“You spoke with him?” she asks, addressing Luke for the first time as he comes forward a few steps.

“Yes. He had a lot to say about you, but he mostly wanted me to tell you that you were wrong.”

"Excuse me?" _What the hell was this guy saying?_

"He said you were wrong," Luke repeats. " He says you _are_ the mama he deserves….and he said….uh…” he trails off uncertain of how to say the next part.

“He said he can’t wait to sleep in your shirt,” Luke relays to her, rubbing the back of his neck. “He said you promised.”

Cara looks down at the little face looking up at her and his ears are sitting high on his head. “I _did_ promise, didn’t I?”

Luke chimes in one last time to offer his sincere parting words. “I’d like to help him any way I can. I’m sure you want to get off this planet as fast as you can but please feel free to reach out to me and I can come to you--I'm not such a bad pilot myself. I’ve given your husband my contact information. It’s private and secure.” Leia chimes in next to him. “Mine as well.”

Cara is touched by their offer to help. “I’d like that….”

“We have a lot to catch up on,” Leia says knowingly, and Cara refuses to blush. _She’s a grown ass woman for God’s sake._

“That we do,” she agreed, as she bounced Bean in her arms to make him chirp.

Cara’s looking forward to catching up with someone she used to know. “One we put a few lightyears between us and this building you have my word we’ll reach out to open a line of communication.”

Luke has the last word before the little family is left alone. “May the force be with you.”

“And also with you,” Cara says and watches as they turn to leave. 

Elma too, is leaving the room to give them some privacy but Cara stops her. “I’m no place to make demands but this is a request--before I get dressed can he see the same scan I did? I don’t know when we’ll be around another medical facility.” She turns to Din. “Just this one quick thing and then we’ll head out, okay?”

“Of course. Anything to put this whole day behind us and get back home.”

They let Bean explore the room and hand him a pile of tongue depressors and cotton balls to stack and play with. “Hands only in this room, okay?” she whispers to their boy, before she walks back to the exam table. Luke might be another force user, but she doesn’t want to take any chances of someone seeing just how special their kid is.

The next fifteen minutes pass by in a blur as Cara climbs back on the table. Cara’s hardly looking at the screen at all—she's looking at Din instead. Where most people would just see a helmet watching a monitor, she could see everything just underneath the surface. She watched in anticipation as he first sees the little creation they had made. She can almost feel his goofy smile under his mustache as he sees the little legs and startles at the surprise powerful kicks that she can’t feel quite yet. They listen together to the rapid ‘swoosh swoosh swoosh’ of a tiny heartbeat and he takes a recording so they can listen to it again later in the quiet of their bunk.

_He’s mesmerized. That’s not a strong enough word. He can’t look away for even a second. Every twitch, every kick, every pass of its little hands across it’s perfect little face….His whole world is centered onto that one part of the screen where the pixels of black and white and gray are shifting and moving. He’s hypnotized by their shape, their little movements, their mannerisms. She’s beautiful, but he's not surprised. Just look at her mother…._

She was created from love and change and turmoil and he’s absolutely in love with her tiny strength already _. This is definitely Cara’s little girl._ Now that he's seen it ( _her_ ) he can't get enough. He wants to know everything; see everything. Every day that they had missed out on this knowledge feels like torture. How could they have missed this? This tiny person had a heartbeat and little arms and legs and it was like his heart had double in size as soon as he saw her little face. He had never understood how parents could have a second child without taking half of the love and attention away from their first, but he knew it now. There wasn't less for Bean, there was just more that existed inside him now. His capacity to love had only grown not been divided by this most amazing discovery made under the strangest of circumstances. 

He can't get enough of this glimpse into what's been developing inside of his wife without either of their knowledge. Cara was practically glowing and no one had ever looked so happy inside a prison wing before, he was sure of it. Apparently, she had seen this miracle twice now, but she still seemed as amazed and taken as he was. He didn't think this feeling would ever go away. It might change as their little one grew and changed, but this sense of wonder at what they had managed to create would never dissipate.

He couldn't wait until he could take his helmet off and kiss her like he wanted to. The image on the screen pitched and shifted completely happy and content in its little home and he was in awe all over again that Cara had done such and amazing job nurturing them so effortlessly. He knew next to nothing of pregnancy or babies but he vowed to learn. He wasn't exposed to many newborns growing up--most additions to his clan had been foundlings and Mandalorian women stayed mostly hidden during the delicate period of gestation so they weren't seen as weak. He ignorantly thought babies were just a blob of cells when they were little, and he couldn't get over how perfectly formed their child was already. He had a lot to learn, but they would figure it all out together. This was the best kind of adventure to embark on together.

_Less getting shot at, more making babies.....He could get behind that._

_The four of them sharing this wild ride together....it was too much to process. He's getting ahead of himself. This child is just a little thing, not even visible to the naked eye. He looks at her stomach and tries to imagine what she'll look like as their child grows._

The baby they can't stop staring at in wonder looks huge on the screen where they've zoomed in so he can't help but ask, “how big is it already?” before correcting himself, “how big is _she_?”

Cara knew the answer as she had asked that question herself, but Elma answers it first. “Almost an inch and a half. The size of a large berry. About half the size of your thumb.”

Cara watches as he holds out his gloved hand and extends his thumb. It’s longer than hers but the general idea is the same.

“Really? That big, already? That’s amazing.”

He holds the length of his thumb against her belly (too high up for where their little bean was nestled but he knows about as much about all this business as her). “That’s huge. And you can’t feel it yet?” he asks Cara, without breaking his line of sight with her abdomen.

Cara shakes her head in answer to his question but he’s barely looking at her face. He seems so enthralled with every bit of this and it makes her giddy with a combination of happiness and relief. He’s taken with this little person already. He’s can’t take his eyes away from her stomach like he can see straight through her to the miracle underneath. Cara can’t help but ask, “why don’t you seem half as shocked as I was? As shocked as I still am to be honest?”

Din answers and he places his thumb lower, nearer to where their tiny human actually is. “You mentioned your implant would be expiring and we were going at it like a pair of dewbacks in the rainy season.” Elma tries not to snicker as she excuses herself from the room so they can prepare to leave.

_It was true. Pretty much every second they weren’t eating or sleeping they had been all over each other._

“Do you want to know how far along I am _…. it is_…. _we are_?” She tries to ask as she stumbles over the still new and unfamiliar words. “I don’t really know what words to use,” she admits. “I’m going to regret telling you this but from the measurements they can tell when conception took place.”

He tilts his head but otherwise remains silent.

She takes his silence as an invitation to fill him in. “It was 8 weeks ago.”

She can see the wheels turning in that brain of his.

“You mean…..?” he asks in amazement, as he figures it out.

“It was probably the first or second day we were on that moon,” she confirms

“But that was the close to the first time we--” _Din’s not sure he calculated it correctly. That couldn’t be right; the first time, really?_

She nods. “Yeah…….it was," she says, and wait sfor him to figure it out.

Din does the math in his head. 

Oh. _Ohh._

His face is still covered but his posture changes almost instantly. He looks cocky and he hasn’t even moved yet. He’s even standing differently. “Oh my God,” she says, as she covers her face with her hands feeling heat crawling up her cheeks. “Are you grinning like an idiot under there?”

“You have no idea.” She can absolutely hear the smugness in his tone and it makes her feel pretty smug too. As much as this miracle is both of theirs, for now it’s all hers to nurture and protect and she feels pretty proud of herself at what she’s managed to accomplish in the last 8 weeks without even realizing it.

Din’s so pleased with himself that it lets her relax. He sits down in the chair, crosses one leg over the other and laces his fingers together behind his head like the showoff he is. “Wait until Greef hears about this.”

“Ughhh,” she groans, as she thinks about the scenario in her head. “He’s either going to give you a high five or blush like a little girl.”

“Definitely a high five,” Din said, 95% sure that would be the outcome. She could practically hear him grinning like a fool under there.

“Where’s my high five?” she asked, disgruntled with the apparent double-standard. “You just helped out with the fun part; I’m doing all the heavy lifting.”

Din laces his gloved fingers with her bare ones. “I’ll see to it you get a high-five too.”

“I hate you so much right now,” she said with a snort, and buried her face into the soft part of his shoulder not covered in armor.

“I love you. I didn’t think it was possible to love you anymore, but somehow you’ve outdone yourself.” He’s looking right into her eyes and it’s like the helmet isn’t there at all. She can see him perfectly. “I’m in awe of everything you are capable of Cara and this just tops all of it.”

“Keep telling me how great I am,” she goads him, with a smug smile all her own curling up her lips. “I haven’t gotten tired of it yet.”

“Let’s get our boy and go home and then I’ll start a list.”

.................................................................

They made it back to the Crest with their friendly escort and readied the take-off sequence. Din pinged Greef and their Mandalorian friend to let them know they were in the clear. The relief was still so fresh and instead of filling them in on the details, he promised to follow up with another transmission in a day or two. He purposefully let out the most wonderful surprise that was brought to light—for now he only wanted to share the newness and excitement of their discovery between himself and Cara. This was their time and their joy to share only when they could no longer revel in this wonderful news in secret any longer. He would give it a couple of days, tops before he had to spill the beans.….

Once they were safely out of the atmosphere of Chandrila, Cara plucked Bean from the safety of her lap and let him scramble to his toy box. She couldn’t help but smile at how happy he was. She turned to Din only to discover his stare was already pouring over her unapologetically. He wasn’t just looking at her stomach like he had been earlier; he was looking at all of her like he couldn’t really believe they were all back together.

“What are you looking at?” she said, after he had been staring for quite some time.

“Just admiring the view?” he offered, in what he thought was a perfectly acceptable explanation.

“Is _that_ what we’re calling it now?” she asks with a smile. Should I take off my clothes so they’re not in the way of your eyeballs. I wouldn’t want them to ruin your _view_.”

“The _view_ is what led to the most amazing gift you’ve ever given me.” He barely tilts his head toward the cockpit where the black and white picture sits in its place of honor next to Bean's favorite metal ball.

She scoffs. She’s never quite comfortable being at the center of his worship or having all the attention on her but she’s thinks she’s going to have to get used to it.

“It's not fair to me, you know. You can’t just go around day-to-day looking like that….” Din says, like he’s perfectly justified in not being able to tear his eyes away from her. He's helpless when it comes to looking at her.

She’s not buying that for a second. “Like what?” she asks, “sweaty and barely able to get my pants fastened? Yeah, it’s quite a view…..”

“You looked beautiful up to your neck in krill-water after not showering for a week.”

“You’re ridiculous.”

Din sits down on the ground near where their kid is playing but it’s like he’s watching him with whole new eyes. Cara slumps into a sitting position on the ground beside him and he must have thought she hit the ground too hard because he scolds her, gently. “Easy, Be careful. There’s precious cargo in there.”

“Don’t you start,” she scolds him right back, but there’s no heat behind it. She’ll have to make a conscious effort to not be so rough on her body for the foreseeable future—a sacrifice she’s more than willing to make. “And cargo jokes, really? You better not liken me to a freighter or cargo chip when I get huge either if you know what’s good for you.”

He laughs and he slides closer to her so he can wrap his arm around her shoulders as they watch their kid play under the table. They’re both lost in their own thoughts for quite some time, enjoying the peaceful silence they found themselves surrounded by.

Din speaks first “Damn, what a day.”

The insanity of that phrase and the events of the day finally catch up to Cara and she bursts out laughing at Din’s descriptive summary of the last ten hours that have felt like days. Her laughter is so infectious Din can’t help but laugh too and by the end they are both laughing so hard there are tears in their eyes.

The emotional rollercoaster of today had been a wild ride. From saying _not_ -goodbye this morning, to losing her, to finding her again, to hearing Bean’s thoughts, and to finishing today with the knowledge of a new life he hadn’t been expecting but loved already; today had started out as the worst and then turned into the best day of his life. He thought the best possible outcome he could ever hope for was just to see her alive again in two days, but they had so much more than they did just hours ago. The day ended with the knowledge that there were four people on the Crest now. Cara was free and they could focus on what they wanted from here on out and enjoy this new gift they had received and would likely change their lives forever. 

He doesn't even realize he's spoken his thoughts out loud until he heard himself say, "what does it feel like?"

His hand rubs gently over her still flat stomach but now that he knows what's under there, he can't believe he didn't notice it before. She's just the slightest bit thicker around her waistband and now he can't seem to keep his hand off this part of her.

She’s still not sure what it feels like, but she's can't help but try to fumble through a description at the sound of wonder in his voice. He thinks it's something amazing and she doesn't want to let him down if she can't put it into words.

"It's hard to describe," she says, but he's still hanging on her every word so she tries to explain it better.

"It feels like.......like there's something more now.......like my body isn't entirely my own and it finally realizes it, so there's this awareness....." She hesitates and thinks about what she just said and how lame it sounded. "Sorry," she says, " I'm doing a terrible job describing it."

"No, you're not," he insists. "Keep going, please. Does it hurt?"

"No, not at all," she says," touched by his concern battling with his joy. "I feel like I have......this secret inside me; something worth fighting for that no one can see, and it gives me this advantage. I don't feel weak as I thought I would either. I feel the opposite--I feel really powerful actually. I've always pushed my body to do things; trained to see results and fought to get control over muscle groups it but this........my body did this all on its own and it's kind of terrifying and entirely amazing at the same time what it's capable of. I feel both in control and completely not in control at the same time. I _made_ this, and I can't believe what I'm capable of and never knew. Oh, and you might have played a small part too."

"Thank you for that generous account of my participation," he says, in a teasing yet deadpan voice she's loved since the very beginning. "I would argue I played a pretty critical part here.".

She chuckles and he laughs in response to her teasing. "It's funny thinking back now," she says. “All the changes I've been brushing off or explaining away are catching up with me and it's like she's been trying to make herself known for a while. If only I'd figured it out sooner."

"Don't worry. You'll figure it out earlier the next time," Din says comfortingly.

She laughs and shoves her shoulder into his without disrupting his hold on her.

"Next time?" she says, turning to look at him like he lost his mind. "Aren't you getting a little ahead of yourself?"

"Nope," he says, and she can hear his smile. "We'll figure it out quicker next time, and the time after that, and the time after that."

"Oh my Gods. I've created a monster." She could laugh at him all she wanted, but a part of her would love nothing more than to share this moment of discovery with him again. Just the happiness in his voice was enough for her to want to do this as many times as possible. 

They settle down against one another and Bean brings them assorted toys until they have a growing pile around them and he's quite proud of himself. He won't leave their side for very long, even to make trips to his toybox, but he seems to be recovering from the stress of the day as well as they can expect. They'll give him extra cuddles until he's back to his cheery, adventurous, mischevious self. 

Din wants to take off his helmet and kiss her but their boy needs to see them and be close to them, so it has to stay on for now. He's never wanted to kiss her as much as he does right now.... _He can only think of one thing that could come close......._

"Do you want to listen to the recording I took?" he asks her as Bean starts slowing down and showing signs of getting sleepy.

"Yeah, of course." She was so glad he had the great idea to record it. She was so caught up in the moment the thought didn’t even cross her mind. He had good ideas from time to time.

"I'll put it on loop,” he says, as he reaches over to his datapad and soon the most soothing repetitive sounds fill the cabin. 

Cara closes her eyes and sinks against Din's shoulder where his arms are wrapped around her. He rests his helmet against her soft hair and he too closes his eyes as the sound of new life fills their ears. 

One day he would put his ear against a tiny chest as it rises and falls and hear this exact same sound, but he didn’t want to get ahead of himself. There were still so many milestones to come across and so many ‘firsts’ to share together. As much as he wanted this day to be over, he also never wanted it to end. This day would always be special to him. It was the day he found out that their family was growing and that he had made a child with the love of his life. _How did they get here?_

He remembers when they had first met and the powerful, almost overwhelming feeling he had when they spent time together. The bond they shared seemed too good to be true and she became the best friend he’d ever had so effortlessly it scared him. When he realized he loved her, he knew a goddess like her would never return his sentiment, but it was too late--he simply couldn’t stop. It was like breathing…… As it turned out he was wrong; she had felt it too.

Somewhere between Sorgan and Chandrila, they had slowly and cautiously (and a tad recklessly at times) fallen in love. Their love had grown and grown until all of the sudden he called her his wife and a picture of their child sat in the cockpit.

As scared as he was at the thought of becoming a father again (to a newborn this time), he wasn’t scared at all when he saw the happiness on Cara’s face. Together they had faced much scarier and much less adorable adventures than this one and he honestly couldn’t wait to live this with her. Picturing his features mixed with hers on the face of their child made his heart race. He had already accepted that between their little girl and Bean, the ship would overflow with adorable children who were spoiled absolutely rotten.

Cara too, listened to the sounds of the tiny heart beating and was instantly overcome with comfort. After his initial shock, Din had completely melted at the discovery they had made today. His joy and wonder were infectious, and she felt light and airy just hearing him talk about their little gift with such adoration. Meeting Din had changed her whole life and given her everything that was taken from and everything she thought she would never have. He had given her friendship and love, but even before that he’d shown her respect and a sense of honor, the likes of which she hadn’t thought possible. He made her want to be better from the very beginning and he tried to be better in return. They had always been good together, but things had taken the most wonderful turn after he came back for her the second time. She could think of no better husband and no better father and was honored she got to know him as both. While people looked only at his armor, Cara knew everything beneath it. He made her laugh and gave her strength and both worshipped her like a queen and treated her like an equal. Bean’s whole life had changed when Din took him in and loved him as his own, and his natural loving nature meant this baby would know nothing but love as well. In between her bouts of joy and mild terror she was comforted they were doing this together, just like they had done everything else. Another baby would only strengthen the bond they all shared, she was sure of it. 

They spent the remainder of the night as close as possible, their hands never straying from each other for more than a few minutes. They were both still a little in disbelief at how things had turned out in their favor. They were back together; miraculously, even better than when they had separated that afternoon. It felt like days had passed but it had only been a couple of hours. They still hardly believed it was real, but were so thankful they didn't second guess their good fortune. _They had gotten so lucky today. It could have gone much different._

They took their time eating dinner and playing with the kid before getting ready for bed. They let Bean sleep at their heads after the unsettling events of the day and their bunk had never felt so warm. The room was dark, and Din was finally able to kiss her as he had wanted to do for hours.

When their lips met there was always heat, but they were so exhausted and relieved from the day’s turn of events they simply kissed and held one another. Once they were sure Bean was asleep, they laid tangled together and spoke in quiet voices about where they wanted to go from here, now they had nothing holding them back or limiting them from choosing whatever life they wanted.

Having so many choices was proving more difficult than they could have predicted. They could travel to Coruscant to help rebuild the Mandalorian community, or they could simply travel the galaxy. They could also choose to settle down somewhere--Skywalker _had_ said he would come to them at their convenience. They could continue to take jobs though the amount of money they had in their account now made that more of a choice than a necessity. They could do all of those choices or none of them. They had never really had this kind of freedom before.

"I love you," he said, as he finally broke away from the passionate kisses they had been sharing off and on for quite some time. 

"I love you too, Din." She still surprised him with how easily she said the words these days. It never failed to take his breath away, even months later.

He kisses down her chest and abdomen until he reaches her hips and rucks up her sleep shirt so he can kiss his way across the elastic band of her panties. Underneath his mouth and the thin layer of cotton is the perfect area of smooth skin around her waist that’s a little spongier and a little fuller than he remembers it being weeks ago. 

When she moans at his mouth so close to where she wants him, he moves back up to the safety of her belly button and kisses there instead. She threads her hands in his hair at the sensation and he rubs his beard against her in reward. 

She laughs at him as he doubles down on caressing her with his beard because he knows what it does to her. “You already got me pregnant, idiot. You and the beard can give it a rest.”

“Never. I will _never_ stop worshipping every inch of you,” he insists in a joking manner, but still meaning every word. 

She chuckles as she thinks about how things are going to change in the days to come and how his favorite pastime of kissing her navel will have to change. “Soon, when you do that, she's going to kick you in the face for invading her space.”

 _Din cannot wait for that day. Nothing would make him happier_. “If she kicks like you, I'll have to watch out. If she kicks like me, I’ll be fine.”

She laughs again and can feel him smiling against her in response. 

He rests his face against the soft skin of her stomach and speaks his next words almost into her warm flesh. 

"What do _you_ want to do now Cara?" he asks her, curious to know where she stands on all this. _He would give her anything. Everything that was within his power...._

"Whatever _you_ want," she responds, deferring to him for one of the rare few times. "This choice is as much yours as it is mine. Whatever we choose, I’ll be happy as long as you’re there with me.”

'What _did_ he want?' he asked himself. He already had _everything_ that most people wish for: a purpose, a family, friends, security.....

Everything he _wanted_ he already had right here. They could travel the galaxy, see old friends on Coruscant or Nevarro, or build a house on a forested moon—he could still smell the cut wood if he really focused. Whatever they decided, Skywalker would come to them to work with Bean wherever they chose. They had every choice at their fingertips….

He'd never had anything to call his own until just over a year ago and he couldn't believe how they had gotten here from their humble beginnings rolling around in the dirt. 

Neither one of them knew how to just live and enjoy quiet peaceful days, but they could learn. ‘After everything they had been through, they were overdue some lazy and peaceful days,’ he thinks. He could be happy with just that, but he also wanted the adventure that had brought them together and the traveling that opened Bean’s eyes to new cultures and yummy reptiles of all shapes and colors for him to taste. He wanted all of it.

“Do we have to choose just one?” he asked her.

“We can choose whatever we want. It’s not written anywhere we have to choose just one path,” she answered confidently.

Din didn’t care if someone thought him greedy at what he was about to say. He wanted everything only so he could give it all to Cara, Bean, and their other bean (with a lowercase 'b') too.

He’d come to a decision.

“I want all of it then,” Din said, and waited for Cara’s censure at such a grand claim but it never came. He wrapped his arms around her and held on as tight as he could.

“Me too,” she said, and bit her lip in the darkness even though he couldn’t see it.

The universe was vast and it could feel overwhelming and lonely at the same time when you traveled it by yourself, but they had each other and it opened up every possibility.

“I choose all of it then,” Din said. “With you by my side, I want everything.”

Cara tangled her fingers with his and kissed him to seal the deal. “You got it.”

The End

....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you all for going on this wild ride with me that was totally unexpected.  
> I can't believe it's finally over.....  
> When this started it was just a first-timer trying to write a short one shot to prove I could write something at all, and it quickly spiraled out of control :D
> 
> For having no clue what I'm doing I have been so appreciative of all of you guys, especially the handful of friends who have been there commenting as regular as clockwork. It's been so motivating and supportive. You have no idea. Quarantine has been such a crazy time and I have loved the sense of community on this site. thanks you guys <3
> 
> Hit me up with any ideas or prompts of things you'd like to see next. I still have a couple of ideas in my back pocket but I'd love to know what anyone has in mind.


End file.
